Gene Wilder
Actor and comedian born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee; Washington High School class of 1951
Net worth
$2.7 million
2007
About
Gene Wilder was born Jerome "Jerry" Silberman in Milwaukee on June 11, 1933, and grew up on the city's west side in Sherman Park and along North 51st Boulevard.
A Milwaukee doctor told eight-year-old Jerry never to argue with his mother, Jeanne, who had rheumatic heart disease, then added that he could make her laugh. The boy took the assignment personally. That is the origin story he later told himself, and it is almost too neat, except he told it himself.
He lived on the same 51st Boulevard stretch as Herb Kohl and Bud Selig, served as vice president of the Washington High Players, cafeteria monitor, and forensics club member, and graduated with the class of 1951. His first paying role was Balthasar in Romeo and Juliet with the Milwaukee Players on April 7, 1949, at Wisconsin Avenue School. After a miserable stint at a Hollywood military academy, where he was the only Jewish boy and was bullied, he came home and got serious. He followed his sister Corinne to Iowa, then served in the Army, reached Broadway, and found Mel Brooks. Washington High's hall of fame later put him on the wall next to Kohl, Selig, and Governor Lee Dreyfus.
He died in Stamford, Connecticut, on August 29, 2016. Milwaukee still knows him as Jerry. The yearbook has the proof.
Notable facts
Born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee on June 11, 1933; raised in Sherman Park and on North 51st Boulevard; Washington High School class of 1951.
First paying role was Balthasar in Romeo and Juliet with the Milwaukee Players on April 7, 1949, at Wisconsin Avenue School.
Washington High's hall of fame places him alongside Herb Kohl, Bud Selig, and Governor Lee Dreyfus; he died in Stamford, Connecticut, on August 29, 2016.
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Gene Wilder notable?
- Gene Wilder was born Jerome "Jerry" Silberman in Milwaukee on June 11, 1933, and grew up on the city's west side in Sherman Park and along North 51st Boulevard. A Milwaukee doctor told eight-year-old Jerry never to argue with his mother, Jeanne, who had rheumatic heart disease, then added that he could make her…
- What is Gene Wilder's estimated net worth?
- Gene Wilder's estimated net worth is $2.7 million as of 2007.