Gene Wilder — a Jewish comedy icon
Gene Wilder, a comedic actor known for playing wild-eyed eccentrics such as the titular characters in “Young Frankenstein” and “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” died Aug. 29 at age 83.
The Jewish actor died in his Stamford, Connecticut, home from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, reported the Associated Press.
Born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1933, Wilder later adopted his stage name, saying he couldn’t imagine a marquee reading “Jerome Silberman as ‘Hamlet.’ ” He worked closely with Jewish director Mel Brooks. In addition to starring in “Young Frankenstein” as the American grandson of the creator of the famous monster, he portrayed accountant Leo Bloom in Brooks’ “The Producers” and a hard-drinking gunman in “Blazing Saddles.”
The New York Times called Wilder’s performance in “Young Frankenstein,” which he co-wrote with Brooks, a “marvelous addled mixture of young Tom Edison, Winnie-the-Pooh, and your average Playboy reader with a keen appreciation of beautiful bosoms.” “Saddles” and “Frankenstein,” were, respectively, the No. 1 and No. 4 grossing movies of 1974.
Wilder also starred as Avram Belinski, a rabbi from Poland en route to his new congregation in San Francisco who befriends a bank robber played by Harrison Ford, in the 1979 comedy “The Frisco Kid.” He and the late comedian Richard Pryor teamed up in a series of black-Jewish buddy movies, including “Stir Crazy” and “Silver Streak.”
He got married four times, including to Jewish comedian Gilda Radner in 1984. The couple remained together until Radner’s death in 1989 from ovarian cancer. Following her death, Wilder became active in promoting cancer awareness and research, co-founding “Gilda’s Club,” a nonprofit providing support to those affected by cancer. In 1991, he married Karen Webb, a speech therapist, and the couple remained together until Wilder’s death. — jta
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israeli military man
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a former Labor Party leader and defense minister who served in the Knesset for 30 years, died Aug. 28 in Tel Aviv. He was 80.
Ben-Eliezer served in the Knesset from 1984 through 2014 and led the Labor Party in 2001-02. Known by the nickname “Fouad,” which means “heart” in Arabic, he withdrew from Israel’s presidential election in 2014 over corruption charges.
In the early 2000s, he was the defense minister for four years under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the second Palestinian intifada. In December 2014, Ben Eliezer resigned from the Knesset for health reasons. A year later he was indicted for receiving more than $500,000 from businessmen in return for political favors. He paid a nearly $3 million fine in a plea bargain in May, which kept him out of prison.
Ben-Eliezer was born in Basra, Iraq, in 1936 and immigrated to Israel as a teen immediately after the birth of the state. He had a distinguished military career in Israel, beginning his service in the Israel Defense Forces in the Golani Brigade. He served as deputy battalion commander during the Yom Kippur War, and served as commander of the Judea and Samaria region for four years until 1982, when he retired from the IDF, returning in 1984 for one year to serve as coordinator of government activities in the West Bank and Gaza.
In December 2014, Ben-Eliezer received a kidney transplant and several months later contracted the flu and was placed in a medically induced coma. — jta