7 best Gene Wilder performances

Gene Wilder, the actor best known for his roles in "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" and "Blazing Saddles," died last Sunday at home in Stamford, Conn. He was 83.

It has been more than a decade since Wilder's last on-screen appearance, leaving the younger generation of filmgoers less familiar with his over-the-top approach to comedy. Here are seven essential films for a crash course on the Wilder canon.

"Bonnie and Clyde" (1967)

Wilder made his movie debut in this biopic of the legendary criminal lovers. Wilder played a hostage of Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty's felonious duo.

"The Producers" (1967)

Wilder's first screen collaboration with Mel Brooks had him playing a timid accountant swept up in a financial scheme involving a deliberately awful Broadway musical.

"Willy Wonka & the Chocolate ­Factory" (1971)

"Blazing Saddles" (1974)

Wilder played the gunman buddy to Cleavon Little's lawman in Mel Brooks' satire of movie westerns.

"Young Frankenstein" (1974)

Yet another Brooks satire, this one of horror films, with Wilder as the mad scientist, "Dr. Franken-STEEN," a pronunciation which he demands of those who get it wrong.

"Silver Streak" (1976)

"Stir Crazy" (1980)

Wilder and Pryor reunited for this hit about friends wrongly imprisoned for bank robbery. The first half is hilarious. The second? Not so much.