The GENE WILDER Only I Knew

THE WIDOW OF THE FAMED COMEDIC ACTOR SHARES SWEET MEMORIES WITH CLOSER

- Louise A. Barile, reporting by Lindsay Hoffman

When they were out in public together, Karen Wilder never called her husband by his name. "Everyone always said, 'Hi, Gene.' 'Hey, Gene.' I called him Sweetie, so that he knew that it was me." A two-time Oscar nominee, Gene Wilder, who was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee, became a movie star in the 1970s with films including Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein and Silver Streak, the first of four comedies co-starring Richard Pryor. He had a special knack for displaying emotional depth and humanity even in his most outrageous characters.