Karen Boyer, Gene Wilder’s widow, remembered the last words her late husband said before his death in August 2016.
A new “Remembering Gene Wilder” documentary focused on the actor’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease and into his final days.
In the film, Boyer recalled listening to Ella Fitzgerald’s legendary hit, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” with Gene before he spoke for the last time.
GENE WILDER WANTED TO BE REMEMBERED MORE FOR ‘YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN’ THAN ‘WILLY WONKA,’ AUTHOR CLAIMS
![Actor Gene Wilder wears hat and blue shirt at tennis game with wife Karen Boyer](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/03/1200/675/gene-wilder.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Gene Wilder’s widow recalled the actor’s final words in a new documentary about “Young Frankenstein” star’s life. (Getty Images)
“The music was playing in the background — Ella Fitzgerald was singing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ and I was lying next to him, and he sat up in bed, and he said, ‘I trust you,'” she said, per People magazine.
“And then he said, ‘I love you.’ That’s the last thing he said.”
A LOOK AT THE 3 ‘CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY’ FILMS CREATED SINCE THE 1964 BOOK BY ROALD DAHL
Wilder died on August 29, 2016, from complications with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83.
![Willy Wonka star Gene Wilder sits in chocolate factory.](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/12/gene-wilder-willy-wonka.gif)
Wilder starred in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” in 1971. (Silver Screen Collection)
Boyer remembered the first time she became aware Wilder was struggling with his memory when he couldn’t remember the title of “Young Frankenstein,” which she said was “his favorite movie.”
“He never really accepted that he had Alzheimers, and maybe by the time we found out that’s what it was, his hippocampus didn’t let him remember,” she said in the film.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
“So I’m not sure that he ever knew. When I’d see him slip away further from me, I was sick to my stomach, but I had to keep smiling and tell him that everything was okay.”
Boyer added, “Gene was wonderful; he was the best husband I think anybody could ask for. To love and be loved is the best gift anybody could ask for, and we had that.”
![Actor Gene Wilder in character as Young Frankenstein](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/03/1200/675/gene-wilder-young-frankenstein.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Wilder starred in and co-wrote the wildly successful 1974 comedy, “Young Frankenstein.” (Getty Images)
![Comedian Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder smile outside of studio in New York](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/03/1200/675/gene-wilder-gilda-radnor.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner were married for five years before her death in 1989. (Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Wilder was married four times. His third marriage to fellow comedian Gilda Radner, an original “Saturday Night Live” cast member, lasted from 1984-89, when she died of complications from ovarian cancer.
The former couple met on the set of the Sydney Poitier directed movie “Hanky Panky.”
He married Karen Webb (Boyer) in 1991, a supervisor for the New York League for the Hard of Hearing who had been an expert on his 1989 film, “See No Evil, Hear No Evil.”
![Gene Wilder and wife Karen Boyer smile at dinner](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/03/1200/675/gene-wilder-karen-webb-boyer.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Gene Wilder and Karen Boyer married in 1991. (Getty Images)
Brian Scott Mednick, who published a biography about the Hollywood icon titled “Gene Wilder: Funny and Sad,” remembered Wilder being completely enamored with Karen.
“Gene called Karen the great love of his life,” Mednick told Woman’s World in 2018. “It was his fourth marriage and the longest; he died shortly before their 25th wedding anniversary. Gene admitted he was very unhappy for a long time with Gilda. He didn’t think he’d get married again, and he said he didn’t believe in fate.
“And he nearly cried when telling an interviewer how passionate his love for Karen was. He said he always felt you make your life and then call it fate, but Karen made him believe in fate. Like any marriage, it wasn’t without its problems, but it was a very strong, loving marriage. He just idolized her.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP