Gene Wilder just three years ago sitting down with Robert Osborne (formerly of Turner Classic Movies) for a half hour talking about his films and Gilda Radner his wife when she passed away in 1989. He would have been 80 at the time and already suffering from the affects of Alzheimer's. He was always a warm human being and also a reticent personality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezfVc5MGmIU
Also a couple of years ago Michael Caine spoke out that the AD rumors around Sean Connery were wrong. They have been lifelong friends, he is my single favorite actor of all time, and they became great friends while making one of my favorite movies The Man Who Would Be King. Apparently Sean Connery lives full time in the Bahamas. He would be 86 right now. I'm almost 66 and sometimes I walk into a room and have forgotten completely why I did. There are numerous big lies about life. The golden years can be fine but they're rarely golden. One of the big lies is that nobody admits that the older you get the more the internal dialogue running has our attention. Older people rarely do anything in internal silence, instead there's a long coffee clatch going on about absolutely everything.
Gene Wilder enjoyed his life. That is clear. In my world it doesn't get better than that. He loved Gilda deeply and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. His best film work was long behind him in 1989 when she passed but he moved on and wrote books which he liked better. Thank you Gene Wilder for some of the funniest moments of my life.
I thought the following comment, which appeared on a Facebook post, would be of interest to Alzheimer's Spouses:
"From Amy Bickers: I know it seems romantic to say that Gene Wilder is finally with Gilda Radner again. I get it. But Gene Wilder had a wife. Her name is Karen Boyer and they were married in 1991. That's 25 years together. She was with him these last years as he lived with Alzheimer's. And she is alive today grieving the loss of the man she's been with for 25 years. I feel like that's worth acknowledging."