:cry:
ABC news just reported his death.
RIP. Such a brilliant comedic actor.
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:31:59 PM
RIP. Such a brilliant comedic actor.
You lose, good DAY SIR :cry:
Oh that sucks. He seemed like a nice guy. :(
He was only two years older than my dad. :cry:
He had Alzheimer's, apparently. I guess that's why he was not seen so much lately.
He retired in either the late 80s or early 90s it seems like. I could be wrong but I have not seen him in anything since then. It is nice when a great artist dies decades after they were relevant. As one should.
Oh dear :(
Blazing saddles. Stir crazy. Willy wonka. So many classics. So many hearty laughs.
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:44:59 PM
He retired in either the late 80s or early 90s it seems like. I could be wrong but I have not seen him in anything since then. It is nice when a great artist dies decades after they were relevant. As one should.
Apparently he won an Emmy for a Will & Grace appearance in 2003. And starred on Broadway in the 1990s.
Quote from: Rasputin on August 29, 2016, 02:48:13 PM
Blazing saddles. Stir crazy. Willy wonka. So many classics. So many hearty laughs.
I never saw Willy Wonka, but loved him in Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Young Frankenstein.
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2016, 02:49:06 PM
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:44:59 PM
He retired in either the late 80s or early 90s it seems like. I could be wrong but I have not seen him in anything since then. It is nice when a great artist dies decades after they were relevant. As one should.
Apparently he won an Emmy for a Will & Grace appearance in 2003. And starred on Broadway in the 1990s.
Ah. Well he did retire from films I guess and just dabbled a bit.
Man, this really bummed me. 2016 really sucks.
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2016, 02:49:34 PM
I never saw Willy Wonka
:o
Wow. Dude, that movie is SO GAY. It's almost as gay as Wizard of Oz!
Quote from: Caliga on August 29, 2016, 02:55:54 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2016, 02:49:34 PM
I never saw Willy Wonka
:o
Wow. Dude, that movie is SO GAY. It's almost as gay as Wizard of Oz!
How do you figure? :hmm:
Granted maybe a movie can be gay without two adult males of age meeting at any point during the film :P
Goodbye, Dr. Fronkonstin. :(
RIP
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2016, 02:42:17 PM
He was only two years older than my dad. :cry:
In the game of dying, when our parent's generation steps into the batters box, we move into the on deck circle. There are no pinch hitters. :)
Quote from: alfred russel on August 29, 2016, 03:06:55 PM
Quote from: Martinus on August 29, 2016, 02:42:17 PM
He was only two years older than my dad. :cry:
In the game of dying, when our parent's generation steps into the batters box, we move into the on deck circle. There are no pinch hitters. :)
*baseballtermexplanationneeded*
When a player is up to bat, standing there trying to hit the ball being pitched by the pitcher, the next batter stands in a circle nearby preparing himself to bat. But sometimes the manager might send out another player to bat instead, a pinch hitter. So basically you are going to die soon yourself once your parents die and nobody is going to die in your place.
:(
The puttin on the ritz scene in young Frankenstein makes me laugh every time.
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 03:11:33 PM
When a player is up to bat, standing there trying to hit the ball being pitched by the pitcher, the next batter stands in a circle nearby preparing himself to bat. But sometimes the manager might send out another player to bat instead, a pinch hitter. So basically you are going to die soon yourself once your parents die and nobody is going to die in your place.
:lol:
Cheerful.
My dad was 42 when he had me, so it's still a bit of a gap (and, knock on wood, he is still fine) but with my lifestyle I wouldn't be surprised if I don't last as long as he. :P
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:58:00 PM
How do you figure? :hmm:
Granted maybe a movie can be gay without two adult males of age meeting at any point during the film :P
It's colorful and whimsical, there are lots of song and dance numbers, and the Oompa-Loompas. Come on, you know those dudes are gay.
They seem rather asexual
RIP
Quote from: Caliga on August 29, 2016, 03:18:04 PM
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:58:00 PM
How do you figure? :hmm:
Granted maybe a movie can be gay without two adult males of age meeting at any point during the film :P
It's colorful and whimsical, there are lots of song and dance numbers, and the Oompa-Loompas. Come on, you know those dudes are gay.
It's not colorful and whimsical. It's creepy and depressing.
Quote from: dps on August 29, 2016, 05:08:17 PM
Quote from: Caliga on August 29, 2016, 03:18:04 PM
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:58:00 PM
How do you figure? :hmm:
Granted maybe a movie can be gay without two adult males of age meeting at any point during the film :P
It's colorful and whimsical, there are lots of song and dance numbers, and the Oompa-Loompas. Come on, you know those dudes are gay.
It's not colorful and whimsical. It's creepy and depressing.
Yep
Quote from: dps on August 29, 2016, 05:08:17 PM
Quote from: Caliga on August 29, 2016, 03:18:04 PM
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:58:00 PM
How do you figure? :hmm:
Granted maybe a movie can be gay without two adult males of age meeting at any point during the film :P
It's colorful and whimsical, there are lots of song and dance numbers, and the Oompa-Loompas. Come on, you know those dudes are gay.
It's not colorful and whimsical. It's creepy and depressing.
Have you met Languish gays?
I'll have you know I'm creepy and whimsical :contract:
I'm colorful.
Such a great actor. One of the funniest comedians ever.
I saw the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so many times as a kid. It was my Dad's favorite movie.
Damn, a great comic actor. :(
Not sure why the BBC is billing him as the star of Willy Wonka, as I think that's a lesser film compared to The Producers, Blazing Saddle or his work with Mel Brooks or Richard Prior. s
It's his best-known work.
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:44:59 PM
He retired in either the late 80s or early 90s it seems like. I could be wrong but I have not seen him in anything since then. It is nice when a great artist dies decades after they were relevant. As one should.
He said he had pretty much checked out from Hollywood--said films simply had far too much unnecessary profanity, violence....and just bad. Just didnt want to work in that environment.
Said he still got roughly a dozen or so letters a day from fans about Willy Wonka, how much it meant to them. All ages.
Really good interview from 2012, covers a lot of ground. Explains how he was Mel Brooks' 3rd or 4th choice for Blazing Saddles, took an overnight flight to be there the next day after Gig Young got the DTs. :lol:
http://youtu.be/ezfVc5MGmIU
Quote from: mongers on August 29, 2016, 06:32:57 PM
Not sure why the BBC is billing him as the star of Willy Wonka, as I think that's a lesser film compared to The Producers, Blazing Saddle or his work with Mel Brooks or Richard Prior. s
Because generations of children grew up seeing him there first, you cynical cyclist. Cycling cynic. Butthead.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 29, 2016, 06:47:40 PM
Quote from: mongers on August 29, 2016, 06:32:57 PM
Not sure why the BBC is billing him as the star of Willy Wonka, as I think that's a lesser film compared to The Producers, Blazing Saddle or his work with Mel Brooks or Richard Prior. s
Because generations of children grew up seeing him there first, you cynical cyclist. Cycling cynic. Butthead.
I appreciate the effort, sadly cynic isn't in my repertoire. :(
:(
I remember his brilliant use of character development in The Producers. It was the first time I'd seen him, and his wimpy act at the beginning seemed irredeemable, but the show saw him slow change into the cheerful, optimistic con man by the end, and I realized i'd seen Zero Mostel himself upstaged.
Quote from: garbon on August 29, 2016, 05:51:30 PM
I'm colorful.
Black is not a colour. It's a lack of colour.
Willy wonka is dead :o
Quote from: grumbler on August 29, 2016, 09:37:32 PM
I realized i'd seen Zero Mostel himself upstaged.
I wouldn't go
that far, but yeah, Gene Wilder had a knack for shallow-to-rich character portrayals: the zany chocolatier hell-bent on continuing his legacy, going from comic relief as a washed-up gunslinger to the chief enforcer of the town, the vacationing surgeon trying to nurture as well as create life, etc.
Quote from: dps on August 29, 2016, 05:08:17 PM
Quote from: Caliga on August 29, 2016, 03:18:04 PM
Quote from: Valmy on August 29, 2016, 02:58:00 PM
How do you figure? :hmm:
Granted maybe a movie can be gay without two adult males of age meeting at any point during the film :P
It's colorful and whimsical, there are lots of song and dance numbers, and the Oompa-Loompas. Come on, you know those dudes are gay.
It's not colorful and whimsical. It's creepy and depressing.
The movie bothered me as a kid.
NPR reaired an interview from 2005(?). Didn't know Gene had a co-writer credit on Young Frankenstein.
Another great one. :(
RIP
Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 30, 2016, 12:42:46 PM
NPR reaired an interview from 2005(?). Didn't know Gene had a co-writer credit on Young Frankenstein.
I watched the link Seedy posted last night (tough watch - in hindsight you could tell he was struggling with his memory). It was actually Wilder's idea for the movie.
Definitely watch the 2013 PBS documentary Mel Brooks: Make A Noise; it's an expansive documentary on Brooks' life and entire career, but naturally he goes over a lot of material about Gene Wilder. Worth seeing.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 30, 2016, 12:42:46 PM
NPR reaired an interview from 2005(?). Didn't know Gene had a co-writer credit on Young Frankenstein.
The Gilda Radner portion was infinitely more sad in the 2005 interview.
Master of the Comedic Pause :lol:
https://youtu.be/MFq9AbVZSbo
The snobbish Minsky's of the world say no, but I say yes! :yes:
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/30/willy-wonka-deserved-an-oscar-a-close-look-at-gene-wilders-finest-role/
QuoteWilly Wonka deserved an Oscar: A close look at Gene Wilder's finest role
Wilder may have been shafted by the Academy on this one, but his most famous performance became a cinematic icon
Steve Almond
There are plenty of reasons to mourn the passing of Gene Wilder, the comedic icon who died yesterday at the age of 83.
Wilder conceived of the idea for "Young Frankenstein" and helped director Mel Brooks write the script, for which Brooks eventually won an Oscar. Wilder also nabbed an Oscar nomination for his fevered portrayal of Leo Bloom in "The Producers."
He starred in a passel of hugely popular comedies with Brooks and Richard Pryor. He married Gilda Radner and started a support network in her name after she died of ovarian cancer. Later in life, he wrote a memoir and three novels. He was revered by family, fans, and fellow comics.
I would argue, though, that the depth of Wilder's genius can best be understood by examining a single scene: the grand entrance he stages as Willy Wonka, in the 1971 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
The scene begins with a throng massed at the gates of his chocolate factory, awaiting the appearance of the reclusive confectioner. The door opens and Wonka appears. But the cheering quickly fades as the rubberneckers realize that the great man has a severe limp. All that can be heard amid the funereal silence is the stark tock of his cane.
A few feet short of the gate, Wonka leans on his cane and it gets stuck in the cobblestones. He stands before the crowd with no means of support, and a look of helpless terror overtakes his face. Then he begins to fall slowly forward. Just as it appears his entrance will end in an epic face plant, he rolls into a perfect somersault.
The scene is absolutely shocking, a tour de force of physical comedy worthy of Buster Keaton.
And Wilder dreamed up the whole thing. In fact, he insisted on playing the scene this way before he would consent to take the part. When the director, Mel Stuart, asked why, Wilder reportedly said, "Because from that time on, no one will know if I'm lying or telling the truth."
Wilder, in other words, didn't just star as Willy Wonka, he conceived of the character, right down to the height of his top hat.
As someone who has read Dahl's fine novel three times over (once on my own, and twice to my children), I can tell you that Wilder's Wonka is a far more complex and vivid character than the one in the book.
He is both courtly and strangely menacing, a lunatic prophet who understands that children are both avatars of the imagination and agents of the devil.
The brilliance of his performance is impossible to convey in print because so much of it resides in his body language and inflection, in facial expressions and gestures.
From the moment he appears on screen, he owns the picture.
There is the scene in which Wonka shows the five children invited to tour his factory one of his new inventions—edible wallpaper.
"The snozzberries taste like snozzberries," he declares.
"Snozzberries?" snorts the stupendously bratty Veruca Salt. "Who ever heard of a snozzberry?"
Wonka grabs her roughly by the chin, leans close and stares at her with his blue eyes wide. "We are the music makers," he murmurs devoutly, quoting the obscure 19th century English poet Arthur O'Shaughnessy. "And we are the dreamers of dreams."
https://youtu.be/1M0eMkcc91E
At the film's climax, Wilder delivers a stunning emotional turnabout. It begins with a frothing fit directed at Charlie Bucket, the film's young hero. Wonka hurls legalistic gibberish at the boy for taking unauthorized sips of his Fizzy Lifting Drink.
Charlie's grandpa Joe is indignant. He mutters a threat to give Wonka's chief competitor, Slugworth, the fabled Everlasting Gobstopper that Wonka bestowed on all the children who visited his factory. But Charlie, ever pure of heart, places the Gobstopper back on his desk.
"So shines a good deed in a weary world," Wonka says softly. Then he jumps up with joy and announces that this act of loyalty was what he had been seeking all along; he can now make Charlie the sole heir to his factory.
It is impossible to view this set piece and not stand in awe of Wilder's dramatic chops. In the space of a few seconds, he transforms himself from a vicious misanthrope into an ecstatic father figure.
"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" is often dismissed as kitschy kids stuff, a goofy Seventies musical with a cloying aftertaste.
But I am hard-pressed to think of another performance in the history of American cinema that is as enthralling and tender and unprecedented as Wilder's Wonka. It is completely sui generis.
I'm sure I'll catch all kinds of crap from cinema highbrows for suggesting this, but Wilder deserved the Oscar for Best Actor in 1971.
As it is, Gene Hackman won for his portrayal of the narcotics detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in "The French Connection." A gritty performance, no doubt. But I have trouble remembering much of what Hackman did in that film, aside from yelling at people and chasing people and shooting at people. His emotional range extended from pissed off to extremely pissed off.
As for the other Best Actor nominees that year, I defy any self-respecting film buff to rank Walter Matthau's performance in "Kotch," or George C. Scott's turn as Dr. Herbert Bock in "The Hospital," as superior to Wilder's. I doubt anyone even remembers those roles.
And yet, 45 years and one dreadful re-make later, Wilder's tour de force remains a touchstone in popular culture.
It's not just old coots like me who are captivated by his magic. All three of my children, and most of their friends, worship the Wonka Wilder created.
In fact, just a few hours before his death was made public, my three-year-old demanded — under threat of tantrum — to watch the scene in which Wilder sings his lovely rendition of "Pure Imagination" while his guests gallivant and gulp through his chocolate room.
To be completely accurate, she insisted on seeing it three times in a row.