10 Things You Didn't Know About Gene Wilder
7. His Real Name Was Jerome Silberman
Though he was known as Gene Wilder for the vast majority of his career, Wilder was actually born Jerome Silberman in 1933, son of Jeanne and William Silberman.
It wasn't until the age of twenty-six, when he began pursuing a career in acting, that Jerome decided to adopt the professional name Gene Wilder.
The name was chosen because of Jerome's fondness for the Thomas Wolfe character Eugene Gant in the 1929 novel Look Homeward, Angel. This, combined with his admiration of the playwright Thornton Wilder, prompted him to merge "Eugene" and "Wilder" in order to create his new name.