'Willy Wonka' Star and Milwaukee Native Gene Wilder Dies At Age 83

WISCONSIN -- Gene Wilder, the iconic actor who portrayed the Roald Dahl character 'Willy Wonka' in the 1971 movie, has died, the Associated Press reported Monday. Wilder was 83.

Gene Wilder was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 11, 1933, to a Jewish family.

According to Biography.com, his father, William, had emigrated from Russia. His mother, Jeanne, was often ill from complications from rheumatic heart disease, and a doctor warned the 8-year-old Jerome, "Don't ever argue with your mother... you might kill her. Try to make her laugh." These circumstances began Wilder's lifelong calling to acting, as he made his mother laugh by putting on different accents.

Wilder made his stage debut as Balthasar in a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as young man growing up in Milwaukee. He graduated from Washington High School in 1951.

Wilder reportedly took his stage name from a character in a Thomas Wolfe novel, and his last from the playwright Thornton Wilder.

Wilder's career stretched several decades and included many notable television and stage performances. Here are a selection of films he appeared in that may be familiar to you:

1968 The Producers
1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
1972 Blazing
1974 The Little Prince
1979 The Frisco Kid
1980 Stir Crazy
1982 Hanky Panky
1984 The Woman in Red
1986 Haunted Honeymoon
1989 See No Evil, Hear No Evil
1990 Funny About Love
1991 Another You
1999 Murder in a Small Town
1999 Alice in Wonderland

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