10 Things You Didn't Know About Gene Wilder
4. He Was A Prominent Cancer Activist
Wilder met his second wife actress Gilda Radner in 1981, while filming the Sidney Poitier film Hanky Panky. During shooting, Radner and Wilder became extremely close friends, their relationship slowly developing into a romance.
After several years together the couple married in 1984, but after a number of failed attempts to conceive and a string of false diagnoses, Radner was confirmed to have ovarian cancer in 1986.Though she initially responded positively to treatment, Radner sadly died three years later.
This loss prompted Gene to become a prominent cancer activist. He founded the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in California as well as Gilda's Club, an organisation for people living with cancer. In 2009 Gilda's Club merged with The Wellness Community, continuing support patients and their families more than fifteen years later.