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
V. J. Jerome V. J. Jerome Victor Jeremy Jerome (1896–1965) was a Polish-American communist writer and editor. He is best remembered as a Marxist cultural essayist and as the long-time editor of the theoretical journal of the Communist Party USA. (Jerome) Isaac Romain, better known by the pseudonym "Victor Jeremy Jerome," was born in Lodz or Strykov, Poland, on October 12, 1896. According to the 1911 Census of England, there was a 14 year old resident Russian alien named Isaac Roman, the son of Harris and Dinah Roman, living with his parents and brother Nathan at 52 Lucas Street, Commercial Road, Stepney, London;