Best known for his comedic roles, as well as frequent collaborations with other comedy legends like Richard Pryor and Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder seems like one of those rare actors who just about everyone likes. He brought a certain endearing quality to the roles he played, even if his characters were morally questionable or flawed. Helping matters further was the fact that he was also extremely funny on-screen and had a certain charisma/sense of humor as an actor that felt unique.
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He passed away at the age of 83 in 2016, but his movies live on, with some of his very best films feeling like they might well be timeless; their appeal spanning generations. Some of Wilder’s best and most notable movies are ranked below, starting with some of his more underrated (albeit slightly flawed) movies and ending with the films he starred in that are classics of both an untouchable and undisputable nature.
10 ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil’ (1989)
Image via TriStar Pictures
Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder made for an entertainingly funny duo, and teamed up a total of four times – for four different movies – between the years 1976 and 1991. Perhaps the last of those, 1991’s Another You, should remain neither seen nor heard, but as for their penultimate collaboration, See No Evil, Hear No Evil?
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It’s not all that bad. It doesn’t match up to what Pryor and Wilder did before, and indeed, each had also been in plenty of movies independent of each other that were considerably better. Pryor plays a man who’s blind, and Wilder plays a man who’s deaf, with the two being a mismatched duo who clash with some dangerous thieves. Its jokes are limited, but the premise and the film’s two leads at least make it watchable.
9 ‘The Frisco Kid’ (1979)
Image via Warner Bros.
In 1974, Gene Wilder starred in one very famous mash-up of comedy and Western, and appeared in another film belonging to those two genres five years later. That film was The Frisco Kid, and it’s something of a buddy comedy Western where Wilder plays one half of the main duo, and Harrison Ford plays his unlikely partner.
Wilder plays a rabbi in the Old West making a dangerous journey through the desert, and while there, he befriends an outlaw played by Ford. The Frisco Kid’s a bit standard, as far as buddy/adventure type movies go, but manages to have a little personality on account of having two accomplished stars in the lead, as well as through its embrace of Western tropes.
8 ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)’ (1972)
Gene Wilder often played anxious, high-strung characters; he was very well-suited to that kind of role. It’s therefore not too surprising to see him pop up in a Woody Allen movie, given that sort of humor’s Allen’s bread and butter. As for what that movie is, it’s got a pretty great title: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask).
It’s a comedy unsurprisingly revolving around sexual themes, finding comedy in the complicated nature of sex. It’s also an anthology film, with seven segments playing out over 88 minutes. As for Wilder, he’s featured in a segment playing a character named Dr. Ross, who has an unusual fixation with a sheep… and maybe that’s all that needs to be said.
7 ‘Stir Crazy’ (1980)
Image Via Columbia Pictures
Stir Crazy was the second film Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor starred in together, and perhaps their most successful overall (at least going by its box office earnings). It’s a comedy largely set inside a prison, with Wilder and Pryor playing two characters who are both given ridiculously long sentences for a bank robbery they didn’t commit.
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It’s all very zany and silly, perhaps feeling a little aged by modern standards, but nonetheless still providing decent entertainment value. It’s also notable for being one of nine movies directed by the legendary Sidney Poitier, who was best known for his acting but also carved out a solid body of work as a director.
6 ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967)
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Bonnie and Clyde has quite the cast, given it stars two Hollywood legends in the titular roles – Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty – has a memorable supporting performance from Gene Hackman, and even features Gene Wilder briefly. The fact he’s not in the film a great deal makes it hard to argue it’s the very best “Gene Wilder movie,” but it is undeniably a great movie that also has some Gene Wilder.
The movie portrays two well-known bank robbers during The Great Depression as anti-heroes, which felt radical for its time. Similarly groundbreaking was the rapid editing featured in the movie, and the violence that pushed boundaries by the standards of the 1960s. And, as the icing on the cake, Gene Wilder briefly appears as a hostage of the titular duo, injecting some nervous energy and humor into the proceedings.
5 ‘Silver Streak’ (1976)
Image via 20th Century Fox
The first cinematic team-up of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor was in 1976’s Silver Streak, and it’s arguably their strongest film overall. It’s also notably more than “just” a comedy, with it balancing in plenty of crime/thriller elements thanks to its premise involving an apparent murder on-board a train, and the dangerous investigations a passenger starts making.
Silver Streak feels more than a little Alfred Hitchcock in nature, given its premise and playful take on the thriller genre. But again, Wilder and Pryor do ultimately elevate things, with their chemistry in this movie showing the potential they had to continue working together in the years that followed.
4 ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974)
The 1970s was the decade that Gene Wilder seemed to be at his peak popularity, and the horror/comedy classic that is Young Frankenstein played a significant part in that. It’s a pitch-perfect spoof of the kinds of horror movies popular in the 1930s and 1940s, with Wilder playing a descendant of the Dr. Frankenstein audiences are likely more familiar with.
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It’s remarkable how well Young Frankenstein captures the look and feel of the kind of movie it’s parodying, with an attention to detail on the technical side of things that showed how Mel Brooks truly was a master at this sort of thing. Wilder also shines and is consistently hilarious in the lead role, and he’s backed by a strong supporting cast that includes the likes of Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, and Madeline Kahn.
3 ‘The Producers’ (1967)
The first of three collaborations between Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder came in 1967, with the classic comedy The Producers. It has a genius premise, following a producer (Zero Mostel) and his accountant (Wilder) as they try and fail to pull off an ambitious scheme involving fraud that sees them putting on a stage musical seemingly destined to fail.
It represented Mel Brooks coming out swinging as a director, as The Producers was his feature film debut, and still holds up as one of his very best. Similarly, it was one of Gene Wilder’s very first roles, alongside 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, with his role in The Producers earning him his sole Oscar nomination for acting (Best Supporting Actor).
2 ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ (1971)
Image via Paramount
Though there is some comedy to be found in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (and Gene Wilder does manage to be dryly funny in the title role throughout), it’s perhaps more definable as a fantasy or musical movie than it is a comedy. This sets it apart at least a little from many other films featuring Wilder, considering the bulk of those tend to be comedies.
Given the fact it’s (at least sort of) family-friendly, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory might be Wilder’s most popular and iconic movie, with its status as an iconic children’s movie surely being a factor as to why Gene Wilder’s so fondly remembered and widely liked. Timothée Chalamet, for as good as he can be, certainly has some big shoes to fill in the upcoming Wonka.
1 ‘Blazing Saddles’ (1974)
Blazing Saddles isn’t just one of the best comedies of the 1970s; it might well be one of the funniest movies of all time. Somehow, Mel Brooks released this the same year as Young Frankenstein, with this pair of 1974 films arguably representing the gold standard of what parody movies are capable of.
Blazing Saddles sets its sights on the Western genre, and the sorts of prejudicial attitudes that dominated the Old West. It’s crude and provocative, but with a purpose, ultimately going after the right targets in a way that ensures it largely holds up, and still feels clever and funny. And as the sardonic yet lovable sidekick to Cleavon Little’s protagonist, Gene Wilder is perfect, making this one of his very best films overall.
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