Want to know the best Gene Wilder movies? How about the worst Gene Wilder movies? Curious about Gene Wilder box office grosses or which Gene Wilder movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Gene Wilder movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Gene Wilder (1933-2016) was a 2-time Oscar nominated actor, writer and director. Wilder gained fame for his many movies with Mel Brooks (The Producers, Blazing Saddles & Young Frankenstein) but to many like me he will always be Willy Wonka. Wilder’s IMDb page shows 37 acting credits from 1961-2015. This page will rank Gene Wilder movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television roles, cameos, shorts and straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.
Drivel Part: Recently we wrote a page on Wilder’s frequent co-star, Richard Pryor. While doing that research on that page, we thought Gene Wilder would make a good UMR movie star page. Sadly today, August 29th 2016 brings the sad news that Gene Wilder passed away at 83. So as a tribute to his movie career….we put together this page. Rest in peace Mr. Wilder…you will be missed. Drivel Part 2: Wow within a 25 minute window…a got an e-mail from Steve Lensman, a text from my wife and a phone call from son #2 about his passing.
Gene Wilder Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Gene Wilder Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Gene Wilder movies by his co-stars
- Sort Gene Wilder movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Gene Wilder movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Gene Wilder movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Gene Wilder movie received.
- Sort Gene Wilder movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Gene Wilder
1. Jerome Silberman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1933.
2. Jerome Silberman took Gene Wilder as his stage name when he was 26. “I had always liked Gene because of Thomas Wolfe’s character Eugene Gant in Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River. And I was always a great admirer of Thornton Wilder.” – Gene Wilder
3. Gene Wilder served with the United States Army from 1956-1958…..serving in the Medical Corps section
4. Gene Wilder was nominated for 2 Oscars®: He received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for 1969’s The Producers and a Best Screenplay nomination for 1974’s Young Frankenstein. Wilder also received 2 Golden Globe® nominations: Best Actor nominations for 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and 1976’s Silver Streak.
5. Gene Wilder starred with Richard Pryor in 4 movies: 1976’s Silver Streak, 1980’s Stir Crazy, 1989’s See No Evil, Hear No Evil and 1991’s Another You.
6. Gene Wilder’s performance as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in 1974’s Young Frankenstein is ranked #9 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
7. Gene Wilder was married 4 times…he had one child. His 3rd marriage was to actress Gilda Radner.
8. Check out Gene Wilder’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Saw the wonderful memorial tribute “commercial featurette on TCM for Gene earlier today in between Dean Martin movies.
Beautiful.
I cried.
I will enjoy their tribute to Gene in late September.
Hey Flora…that is good that TCM did that. I just got through watching a 30 minute interview with Wilder done in 2013….he was still very funny and shared some great stories….I will see if I can find that link again and share it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezfVc5MGmIU
This is the video I was talking about.
Thanks for the link, Bruce.
I was glad that I could see him in Bonnie and Clyde in the featured role of Eugene who – with his girlfriend – meets up with the gang when they steal his car.
Bonnie and Clyde will be airing as the last entry of the Gene Wilder memorial tribute that starts at 5pm Pacific on the 29th.
Hey Flora…I was watching an interview with Wilder about Bonnie and Clyde….and in the original script his role was played very straight….it was Wilder’s idea to have some humor in the role….that was a good decision for him and the movie.
Wilder was great in Bonnie and Clyde. In that film he has a featured role.
Later this month in Gene Hackman Star of the Month, this will be switched and Hackman will have the featured role in Young Frankenstein. Y.F. will be airing twice this month.
Hey Flora….great information…about a month ago I watch Young Frankenstein with the Mel Brooks’ commentary….it was a very fun commentary to listen too. Thanks for the comment.
My favourite is Start the revolution Without Me. i see it is at no.12, which i don’t mind, it could have been a lot worse.
Hey Louisa C …I have not seen that one but it is on my list of movies to watch….thanks for checking out our Wilder tribute.
Nice job! I’d forgotten he was also from Wisconsin.
Thanks TopBilled….Wilder joins a list of movie people that have gotten me motivated to write a page when I heard about their passing….it does not happen everytime…..just when I feel contacted to the star for some reason. Others that I felt that way about: Harold Ramis (all those great 1980s comedies), Tony Scott (so many great action movies), David Bowie (more for the music than the movies), Roger Ebert (my favorite movie critic) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock felt like a family member). Gene Wilder now joins that group. Speaking of Nimoy….his final words to us…might be the best farewell ever: “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP”
Yes, I was going to ask how you selected the ones you profile.
I would like to suggest a page on Betty Hutton musical comedies, since she was a big draw for Paramount in the 40s and early 50s.
And I think it would be interesting if you did one on a singing cowboy like Roy Rogers or Gene Autry, who made so many pictures and delighted western audiences for many years.
Hey Top Billed….I will add Betty Hutton to the request list. I will look at Autry and Rogers as well……but since many of their movies were serials it might be difficult to get the box office numbers I need to do these pages. Thanks for the suggestions.
Great…can’t wait to see Betty Hutton’s “stats.”
Hey Top Billed….I will probably knock that one out soon….especially since she only has 19 movies to research.
To Be Or Not To Be. Didn’t Wilder say that in one of his movies?
Hey Laffite…..not sure…I know his long time cohort Mel Brooks said that line lots of times in To Be Or Not To Be which was the remake of the Jack Benny movie To Be Or Not To Be
Frisco kid was my favourite
Hey Rhonda….I watched that one all the time….when it came on HBO back in the 1980s….plus you get a very young Harrison Ford….and in a comic role as well. Thanks for stopping by.