Gene Wilder — actor with roots in the Russian Empire
Gene Wilder was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee on 11 June 1933, into a Russian Jewish family. His connection to the Russian Empire runs through both his parents.
His father, William J. Silberman, a manufacturer and salesman of novelty items, was an immigrant from Russia; the United States censuses of 1930 and 1940 record him as born in Russia to Russian-born parents. His mother, Jeanne Baer, was born in Illinois to Russian Jewish immigrants. The town the families came from and the date of emigration are not documented. The 1940 census lists the household in Milwaukee: William, Jeanne, a daughter, Corinne, and six-year-old Jerome.
When he was eight his mother developed rheumatic fever, and a doctor told the boy to try to make her laugh; Wilder later dated his interest in acting to that moment. He first performed before a paying audience at fifteen, graduated from Washington High School in Milwaukee in 1951 and studied communication and theatre arts at the University of Iowa. His mother died in 1957. At twenty-six he took the name Gene Wilder, from Eugene Gant in Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel and from the playwright Thornton Wilder.
After stage work in New York, including the 1963 Broadway production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, whose lead was Kirk Douglas, he made his film debut in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). That year Mel Brooks cast him as the accountant Leo Bloom in The Producers, which brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He played the title role in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), and in 1974 made Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein with Brooks; he co-wrote the second with him and shared an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay. Silver Streak (1976) began a run of four films with Richard Pryor.
He was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a comedy for both Willy Wonka and Silver Streak. He later worked less, publishing novels and other books, and his last screen role, as a guest on Will & Grace, won a Primetime Emmy in 2003. He died at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, on 29 August 2016, aged eighty-three.
"Father William J. Silberman was born in Russia (US censuses of 1930 and 1940) and emigrated to the United States; Wilder's maternal grandparents were also Russian Jewish immigrants. Town and date not documented."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Russian Empire (town not documented)
Born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee in 1933. His father, William J. Silberman, was a Russian Jewish immigrant, recorded in the US censuses of 1930 and 1940 as born in Russia; his mother's parents were also Russian Jewish immigrants.
Father William J. Silberman, a manufacturer and salesman of novelty items, born in Russia to Russian-born parents; mother Jeanne Baer, born in Illinois to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.
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Russian Empire (town not documented). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
A career defined by ambition
"I never want to see anyone — and I mean anyone — be anything less than what they truly are."