As actor/director partnerships go, they don't come more successful than Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks.
Their collaboration saw produced Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Young Frankenstein. All three of which rank among the greatest comedies of all time to this day.
Brooks was on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night and naturally he was asked about his friend's passing.
"I'm still reeling" Brooks said of Monday's news.
Fallon asked the legendary director to describe his first encounter with Brooks and it's as delightful as you'd expect it to be.
"Look in the mirror. Blame it on God!"
Wilder's reaction to Brooks' promising to cast him as Leo Bloom once he gets the money to make The Producers is also a gem of a tale.
"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 money in it is 'Spring Time for Hitler'? Yeah! You're going to get the money!"
Wilder himself has other memories from that first meeting with Brooks and they were just as great. He shared them in an interview with Alec Baldwin several years ago.
Via Uproxx
