Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.

It was a 1963 Broadway production of Mother Courage and her Children that altered the course of his life forever. Wilder was cast alongside iconic director Mel Brooks’ then-girlfriend Anne Bancroft, who introduced the pair, launching a lifelong friendship.

As Wilder explained in a 2005 interview with CNN: “I was miscast in a play, and it changed my life.”

He was subsequently cast as the frazzled Leo Bloom in The Producers in 1967, starting his celebrated collaborating with Brooks and earning him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor — landing him in Hollywood’s big league.

Gene Wilder in The Producers.Source:News Limited

Wilder went on to star in two more Brooks films, playing a drunken gunslinger in Blazing Saddles and a scientist in Young Frankenstein.

Brooks remembered his friend in a tribute on Monday, calling him “one of the truly great talents of our time”.

“He blessed every film we did with his magic, and blessed me with his friendship,” he tweeted.

Certainly, it was his professional relationship with the director that started his stardom, but it was a non-Brooks role which arguably became his movie legacy — the 1971 cult classic, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Wilder wanted the titular role so much, he reportedly put in a personal call to Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl, eventually beating out Fred Astaire and Peter Sellers to become the iconic Willy Wonka.

Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.Source:Supplied

When it came to crunch time, he reportedly insisted on designing his own entrance in the movie.

“When I make my first entrance, I’d like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk toward the crowd with a limp. After the crowd sees Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet. As I walk toward them, my cane sinks into one of the cobblestones I’m walking on and stands straight up, by itself; but I keep on walking, until I realise that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause.”

Wilder later revealed his reasoning for Wonka’s bizarre entrance, explaining that “from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth”.

The family of Wilder has confirmed his death, saying the 83-year-old died at his home on Monday of complications from Alzheimer’s.