#bespectacled polymath

Gene Wilder was a new kind of Hollywood star

(CNN)Gene Wilder, who died Monday at 83 after a long illness, was the kind of movie star who could have only come into being during the 1970s, when movies themselves were in flux.

For American film, especially, it was a decade of creative upheaval and ferment; when leading men weren’t just in the traditional good-looking guy mode, such as Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood, but also…

Gene Wilder was a new kind of Hollywood star

(CNN)Gene Wilder, who died Monday at 83 after a long illness, was the kind of movie star who could have only come into being during the 1970s, when movies themselves were in flux.

For American film, especially, it was a decade of creative upheaval and ferment; when leading men weren’t just in the traditional good-looking guy mode, such as Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood, but also…