Tuesday 30 August 2016

Gene Wilder, And Other Things

We don't cover obituaries here at the Quirky Muffin. Many relevant luminaries pass on without a comment, Leonard Nimoy for example, but there was some particularly wrenching about the idea of Gene Wilder being gone. He was a special man, a unique blend of artist, comedic showman and sensitive actor that will never be matched. He was the crazed everyman that everyone might want to be, and now he's gone. It's true that he hadn't actively worked for a long time, but he'll be missed still. That tour-de-force performance in 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' really did sear him into most children's memories...

Oh well, people do move on to whatever might await in the next dimension. It might be nothing or a whole new world. We'll never know. The unanswerable questions are always the most interesting ones. What happens when we die? Is there a God or not? What about ghosts and psychic phenomena? If any of these things are found to exist, then are they real or just science so advanced as to appear mystical? Is it all down to aliens?

No, it's too difficult. Philosophical questions will have to wait for another day. This one is about pointing out the ridiculous accomplishments of that great and wild-haired genius. Gene Wilder, the man behind Leo Bloom ('The Producers'), The Waco Kid ('Blazing Saddles'), Frederik Frankenstein ('Young Frankenstein'), Quackser Fortune and Willy Wonka has moved to the great asylum in the sky for creative geniuses. Very few actors get more than one career defining performance, but this one managed at least three, and debateably four! Maybe it would be five or six if I had seen 'Rhinoceros'. No-one else could bring the the edge of intelligence and madness that Wilder had. He was a one-off.

Goodbye, Gene Wilder. Well done. You made everyone's lives just a little happier. Even the 1980s movies were cheering in some ways. Adieu.

O. 

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