I was quite sad to hear about the passing of Gene Wilder but then again he was 83 and had been making movies for a long time. Longer than I realised.

You grow up with watching your favourite actors at the cinema and on TV. I probably didn’t get to see the classic crime movie ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) until the mid-70’s. Starring Warren Beattie, Fay Dunaway and Gene Hackman, in his first major film role as Clyde’s brother Buck.

But the character that stood out for me was a certain Gene Wilder also in his first movie role (although he was only on screen for no more than 15 minutes) as Eugene, a young man who, with his girlfriend gets carjacked by the intrepid crime duo. Even then you knew he had great comedy timing.

It was in that same year that he won the role of Leo Bloom, the nervous hypochondriac accountant in Mel Brooks hit comedy ‘The Producers’ (1967).

The film won an Oscar for best story / screenplay for Mel Brooks and really put Wilder on the map.

Again as a teenager in the 70’s I thought the Producers was hilarious (yes in the old days we use to have to wait at least a few years before it made it to our TV screens…Oh! And we had colour by then!)

I had never seen that intensity of physical comedy before, I thought Wilder must have been on the edge of a nervous breakdown in real life. A bit like John Cleese’s and his Basil Fawlty rants.

With that slightly crazy and unpredictable characteristic approach to his acting, he was a natural choice to play Willy Wonka. However, the film wasn’t a huge hit at the time (surprisingly) as it was thought of as being too cruel to children to be a family film.

But many families now list 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ (1971), as one of their favourite films which is then past-on to the next generation. Often preferred to the 2005 Johnny Depp remake.

Wilder was soon back to collaborating with the director and producer Mel Brooks who was starting to get the Midas touch. In 1974 Mel Brooks brought us the hugely popular comedy Western ‘Blazing Saddles’ followed by ‘Young Frankenstein’ which was also so written by Brooks and Wilder who chose to make the film in black and white. It was another huge hit with audiences.

In 1976 Wilder began his comedy partnership with stand up artist Richard Pryor, appearing in the comedy thriller ‘Silver Streak’. The couple continued their winning streak into the 80’s with the prison romp ‘Stir Crazy’ (1980) and ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil’ (1989).

For me these were Wilders best years. You just expect these iconic acting greats to be around forever.

So far 2016 has been pretty cruel in depriving us from some truly great entertainers.