Katharine Wilder is daughter of Hollywood actor, Gene Wilder, known for movies like Bonnie Clyde, Blazzing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and for writing and directing ‘The Woman in Red’
Gene Wilder was married four times, but had no children of his own. His second girlfriend Mary Joan Schutz had a daughter called Katharine from a previous marriage. Since Katharine was attached to Gene and would call him ‘dad’, he reciprocated in equal measure and went on t marry Schutz in the year 1967, The very same year, he adopted Katharine.
In the seven years of marriage, Katherine began to suspect that her father was having an affair with an actress called Madeline Kahn, co-star from Young Frankenstein. Post his divorce to Schutz, Wilder went on to marry Teri Garr, another co-star from Young Frankenstein. Katherine broke all contact with her father when she was 23.
Wilder would always say that he loved Katherine, he even went on to write a book called ‘Kiss Me Like a Stranger’, dedicated to his adopted daughter. He said to Larry King, “To write about things I did lovingly, for her. Do I think she’ll read it? No. But if she does, I hope it will explain some things she didn’t want to understand.”
Gene Wilder passed away from complications related to Alzheimer’s Disease on August 28, 2016 in Stanford, Connecticut, at the age of 83.
