I wanted to do - there was this film called 'Magic' that Anthony Hopkins did. And the director wanted me. The writer wanted me. Joe Levine said no, I don't want any comedians in this.

Wilder has directed and written several of his films including The Woman in Red (1984). Wilder was drafted into the Army on September 10 1956. " When Jeanne Silberman felt that her son's potential was not being fully realized in Wisconsin Gene Wilder sent him to Black-Foxe a military institute in Hollywood where he wrote that he was bullied and sexually assaulted primarily because he was the only Jewish boy in the school.

Wilder began his career on stage and made his screen debut in the TV-series Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1962. Wilder has directed and written several of his films including The Woman in Red (1984). This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein the latter of which garnered the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.