Form an early age he was interested in acting and theatre, but he graduated in communication and theater arts at the Iowa University. Afterwards, he continued to learn acting as well as fencing at the British theatre school Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Upon his return to the US he wanted to learn acting with Stanislavski, but in 1956 he got drafted. After his return to New York he earned his living doing odd jobs and learning acting at the HB Studio and Lee Strasberg’s Studio. At the age of 26 he changed his name to Gene Wilder. He acted in theatre plays on Broadway. In 1963, he played in the play Mother Courage and Her Children together with Anne Bancroft and met her partner at the time, Mel Brooks. This accidental encounter resulted in a life-long friendship and Wilder’s most famous roles. Before that in early 1960’s Wilder acted in several TV series. In 1967, he acted in his first two feature films for distribution in film theaters – smaller role in Arthur Penn’s popular Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and a bigger one in Mel Brooks’ directing debut The Producers (1967). The film was not very successful but Wilder was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor. His role in the film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) remains one of his most famous ones.  He worked with Woody Allen on his omnibus Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972). He collaborated again with Mel Brooks in his popular comedy Blazing Saddles (1974), as well as in his very successful comedy Young Frankenstein (1974), for which he co-wrote the original screenplay with Brooks and they were nominated for an Oscar. Afterwards he made his screenwriting and directing debut with the parody The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) in which he also starred. Furthermore he wrote and directed comedies The World's Greatest Lover (1977), Haunted Honeymoon (1986) and The Woman in Red (1984), which was his only film with somewhat higher ratings. Another of his films that stands out is Silver Streak (1976) starring Richard Pryor. They continued their collaboration in Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), also co-written by Wilder. His last feature film was Another You (1991), also starring Richard Pryor, for whom that was the final role in his career. During the 1990’s he acted in Television series, and starred in the comedy show Something Wilder (1994-1995). In 1999, he found out he suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which he managed to cure. At the time he retired and appeared only in two episodes of the TV show Will & Grace (2002 and 2003), which brought him the Primetime Emmy award as guest actor in a comedy show in 2003. In 2005, he published his "Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art", and afterwards continued to write and published three novels and a collection of short stories.  He passed away at the age of 83 due to Alzheimer’s illness.