Gene Wilder Gene Wilder Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, singer-songwriter and author. Wilder began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in an episode of the TV series "The Play of the Week" in 1961. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture "Bonnie and Clyde", Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1967 film "The Producers" for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in
Laurence Silberman He served in the United States Army from 1957 to 1958. His first wife, Rosalie "Ricky" Gaull Silberman, co-foundress of the Independent Women's Forum, died on February 17, 2007. Silberman has since married Patricia Winn Silberman. Silberman has three children, Robert S. Silberman, Kate Balaban, and Anne Otis. Silberman is also a friend of Justice Clarence Thomas and in 1989 encouraged a young and then-reluctant Thomas to accept a federal judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Silberman has worked in the private sector as a partner at the law firms Moore, Silberman