Gene Wilder - biography

1933-

Biography

Gene Wilder is best-known for the following films:

Gene Wilder Quotes

“A lot of comic actors derive their main force from childish behavior. Most great comics are doing such silly things; you’d say, ‘That’s what a child would do.’”

“Actors fall into this trap if they missed being loved for who they really were and not for what they could do - sing, dance, joke about - then they take that as love.”

“And in ‘Frisco Kid’ and in ‘The Woman in Red’ I had to ride badly. Then you have to really ride well in order to ride badly.”

“I’d like to do a comedy with Emma Thompson. I admire her as an actress so much. I love her. And I didn’t know it until recently that her whole career started in comedy.”

“I’m not so funny. Gilda was funny. I’m funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while. But she was funny. She spent more time worrying about being liked than anything else.”

“Great art direction is NOT the same thing as great film direction!”

“I wanted to do - there was this film called ‘Magic’ that Anthony Hopkins did. And the director wanted me. The writer wanted me. Joe Levine said no, I don’t want any comedians in this.”

“I don’t mean to sound - I don’t want it to come out funny, but I don’t like show business. I love - I love acting in films. I love it.”

“I love the art of acting, and I love film, because you always have anther chance if you want it. You know, if we - if this isn’t going well, you can’t say - well, you could say - let’s stop. Let’s start over again, Gene, because you were too nervous.”

“A loud kind of Jewish genius - maybe that’s as close as you can get to defining him.”

“Woody makes a movie as if he were lighting 10,000 safety matches to illuminate a city. Every one is a little epiphany: topical, ethnic or political.”

“I never thought of it as God. I didn’t know what to call it. I don’t believe in devils, but demons I do because everyone at one time or another has some kind of a demon, even if you call it by another name, that drives them.”

“I write funny. If I can make my wife laugh, I know I’m on the right track. But yes, I don’t like to get Maudlin. And I have a tendency towards it.”

“So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I’m doing that, then I snap out of it.”

Filmography

The Actor