Boy, I wish I had a personal Gene Wilder story. I met him only once for about two minutes and didn't even have time to tell him how absolutely marvelous he was in everything he did but especially in The Producers and Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles and Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and — oh, hell — everything he did. He was in some bad movies but he was never bad in anything.
I would have told him that. I might have told him that I've heard more than one actor and acting teacher suggest that actors who want to better themselves would do well to watch a movie with Gene Wilder in it and pay particular attention to him in a scene when someone else is speaking, someone else has the focus. He was always acting in those moments too, reacting or listening in perfect character and supporting the scene with his presence. A lot of good actors are good when they have something to do. Gene Wilder was good all the time.
And I'm not sure what else I would have told him. I heard him speak a few times and I remember he was asked, "When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?" He replied, "I wanted to be whatever Danny Kaye was" and I thought that was a great answer. I also thought he'd achieved it. If Danny Kaye had been younger and easier to work with, wouldn't they have cast him as Willy Wonka? He would have been great. But Gene Wilder was better.