Gene Wilder has died at the age of 83, and the world is understandably very angry and very sad.
With 2016 taking so many of our treasured heroes we’ve spent a long time looking back, spent many nights watching our favourite films by those who went that day. Tonight Leo Bloom will be putting on a show, Dr. Frankenstein will be correcting a common mispronunciation, Willy Wonka will taking us to a land of pure imagination. Tonight The Waco Kid will ride again.
Social media is currently a storm of tributes of the man’s work. Young Frankenstein, The Producers and Willy Wonka are getting the most play, and with good reason. Being funny while doing nothing at all is the hardest trick to pull off, and Wilder was the Houdini of this discipline. Able to reduce so many of us to fits of laughter by being the funniest straight man on screen. There will never be another like him.
So, the world is a little less wilder tonight, but through the anger and the sadness (the exact emotional combination Wilder was able to hold in his eyes) are left with so much to remember, so much to enjoy over and over, and so much to be thankful for.
Thank you Mr. Wilder. You will be missed.
