Mel Brooks Shares With Jimmy Fallon Fond Memories of His Good Friend Gene Wilder

On the August 30th episode of The Tonight Show with host Jimmy Fallon, legendary funnyman Mel Brooks mourned the loss of his good friend Gene Wilder for the first time in public. He also shared a number of very funny stories about the work they did together. He also shared a touching memory about raising money for The Producers.

We became very good friends and I told him about Leo Bloom and the thing I was writing called ‘The Producers’. And I said, “look, I’m promising you…when we get the money, you are going to be Leo Bloom”. He said “Oh yeah, when you get the money. You’re doing a play about two Jews who are producing a flop instead of a hit, knowing they can make more money with a flop and the big number in it is ‘Springtime for Hitler‘? Yeah, you’re going to get the money. …We got the money, I went backstage …and he was taking off his makeup, he was in his dressing room. I took the script and I said “Gene, we got the money. We’re gonna make the movie. You are Leo Bloom.” and I threw it on his makeup table and he burst into tears.

Later on, Mr. Brooks shared tales from his Brooklyn childhood, including an incident in which he urinated out of Williamsburg tenement window at the age of five.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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