Gene Wilder’s widow reveals actor’s heartbreaking final words
Topics: Documentaries, Film and TV, Celebrity
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Everett Collection/Warner Brothers
Topics: Documentaries, Film and TV, Celebrity
Gene Wilder's widow has recalled the late actor's final words to her.
Wilder shot to fame after bagging the leading role in 1967 film, The Producers as Leo Bloom.
Shortly after he starred in cult classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where he portrayed Willy Wonka himself and became the Gene Wilder we all knew.
Some of Wilder's other best-known movies include Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and The Woman in Red.
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His last acting gig was in 1991 in Another You, 25 years before his passing.
Wilder died at the age of 83 in 2016 from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He'd been diagnosed with the condition three years prior.
While Wilder kept the news of his diagnosis private, a new documentary looks into his illness and his final days.
Titled Remembering Gene Wilder, the documentary has so far received critical acclaim and boasts 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes' tomatometer.
It's currently playing in theatres in New York, and will hit cinemas is Los Angeles on Friday (March 22), before going on to be released elsewhere in the US.
The synopsis for the film reads: "Interviews and never-before-seen footage provide insight into the life, career and legacy of actor and comedian Gene Wilder."
One of those interviews is with Wilder's widow, Karen Boyer. Boyer was the late actor's fourth wife, whom he wed in 1991.
Sharing what Wilder's final moments were like, she says in the documentary: "The music was playing in the background - Ella Fitzgerald was singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', and I was lying next to him and he sat up in bed and he said, 'I trust you'.
"And then he said, 'I love you'. That's the last thing he said."
Going on to gush about her late love, Boyer hails Wilder as 'the best husband'.
"Gene was wonderful; he was the best husband I think anybody could ask for," Boyer says in the film.
"To love and be loved is the best gift anybody could ask for, and we had that."
Elsewhere she says that Wilder 'never really accepted that he had Alzheimers' - a condition that is seeing a rise in numbers.
As of last year, it was said that 6.7 million Americans aged 65 and over were living with Alzheimer's.
73 percent of this figure were reported to be aged 75 or older, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
Further sharing the hardships of Wilder's disease, Boyer goes on to add: "When I'd see him slip away further from me I was sick to my stomach but I had to keep smiling and tell him that everything was okay."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Alzheimer's Association for support. You can access help via the website, or call its 24/7 helpline on 800.272.3900.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.