Pure Imagination
Gene Wilder
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Browse piano sheets by Gene Wilder on Zen Virtual Piano. Pure Imagination was written by the British composers Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie in which Gene Wilder played Willy Wonka, and Wilder sang it. As Wonka he drew a Golden Globe nomination for best actor and became known to many young filmgoers. A Golden Globe nomination for playing Wonka, even though two other writers wrote the song he sang, may hint at an actor's work being judged on performance rather than authorship. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the birthplace of Jerome Silberman, the birth name of Gene Wilder, on June 11, 1933; the family was Jewish, and his father, William, had come from Russia. At eleven he watched his sister, who was studying acting, perform on stage and was enthralled, and he asked her teacher to take him as a student; the teacher said he would if the interest lasted until thirteen. A birth name of Jerome Silberman and an early wish to study acting may suggest that the performer later known as Gene Wilder had the stage in mind long before he had the name. Once out of high school he took up communication and theater arts at the University of Iowa, followed by a year of theater and fencing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. At 26 he chose the stage name Gene Wilder, having decided that Jerry Silberman would not look right on a marquee playing Macbeth. Anne Bancroft, whom he met during a 1963 staging of Mother Courage and Her Children, brought him together with her boyfriend Mel Brooks; they quickly became close friends, and Brooks resolved to cast him in The Producers. A stage name chosen with a marquee in mind, and a friendship that began through Anne Bancroft, may suggest a career shaped partly by deliberate choices and partly by introductions. A year after meeting Brooks, he landed his first big part in The Producers, as Leo Bloom opposite Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock. Critics gave the film mixed reviews and it flopped at the box office, yet the role still brought him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. The year 1974 was a busy one: he rejoined Mostel for Rhinoceros, took the part of a fox in The Little Prince and wrote Young Frankenstein together with Brooks. Wilder announced that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, recovered through chemotherapy and stem cell transplants, and by the end of the 1990s had effectively retired. He published a memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, in 2005. A 1974 that held Rhinoceros, The Little Prince and a Young Frankenstein written with Brooks, and an effective retirement by the end of the 1990s, may suggest a working life with a crowded middle and a quiet end.
Browse piano sheets by Gene Wilder on Zen Virtual Piano.
Pure Imagination was written by the British composers Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie in which Gene Wilder played Willy Wonka, and Wilder sang it. As Wonka he drew a Golden Globe nomination for best actor and became known to many young filmgoers. A Golden Globe nomination for playing Wonka, even though two other writers wrote the song he sang, may hint at an actor's work being judged on performance rather than authorship.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the birthplace of Jerome Silberman, the birth name of Gene Wilder, on June 11, 1933; the family was Jewish, and his father, William, had come from Russia. At eleven he watched his sister, who was studying acting, perform on stage and was enthralled, and he asked her teacher to take him as a student; the teacher said he would if the interest lasted until thirteen. A birth name of Jerome Silberman and an early wish to study acting may suggest that the performer later known as Gene Wilder had the stage in mind long before he had the name.
Once out of high school he took up communication and theater arts at the University of Iowa, followed by a year of theater and fencing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. At 26 he chose the stage name Gene Wilder, having decided that Jerry Silberman would not look right on a marquee playing Macbeth. Anne Bancroft, whom he met during a 1963 staging of Mother Courage and Her Children, brought him together with her boyfriend Mel Brooks; they quickly became close friends, and Brooks resolved to cast him in The Producers. A stage name chosen with a marquee in mind, and a friendship that began through Anne Bancroft, may suggest a career shaped partly by deliberate choices and partly by introductions.
A year after meeting Brooks, he landed his first big part in The Producers, as Leo Bloom opposite Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock. Critics gave the film mixed reviews and it flopped at the box office, yet the role still brought him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. The year 1974 was a busy one: he rejoined Mostel for Rhinoceros, took the part of a fox in The Little Prince and wrote Young Frankenstein together with Brooks. Wilder announced that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, recovered through chemotherapy and stem cell transplants, and by the end of the 1990s had effectively retired. He published a memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, in 2005. A 1974 that held Rhinoceros, The Little Prince and a Young Frankenstein written with Brooks, and an effective retirement by the end of the 1990s, may suggest a working life with a crowded middle and a quiet end.
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Gene Wilder
Common questions
Gene Wilder is a performer in film and theater who played Willy Wonka; he was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 11, 1933.
It is a song written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie in which Gene Wilder played Willy Wonka, and Wilder sang it.
He met Anne Bancroft during a 1963 production of Mother Courage and Her Children, and she introduced him to her boyfriend, Mel Brooks.
His memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, appeared in 2005.