BEACON TRANSCRIPT – This week Hollywood lost another great actor as Gene Wilder said his final goodbye. The actor best known for his role in Willy Wonk and the Chocolate Factory was reclusive in his last years due to an illness that affected his cognitive capacity.

Gene Wilder was one of the masters of old-school comedy, a usual appearance next to Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, and other stars of the generation.

Three years ago, during an interview with Robert Osborne, the host of Turner Classic Movies, Gene Wilder spoke about his lifetime career, the public’s perception of himself through the filter of his work, and the novelty Wilder brought to Willy Wonka’s character.

The interview in question would prove to be his last public appearance as his Alzheimer’s disease advanced and the actor refused to show the fans an image of a defeated star.

Gene Wilder Was Not That Funny

According to the interview, Wilder didn’t think of himself as being a funny person. While he did do a splendid job in portraying comic characters, the actor was not one to make a full room burst in laughter with the use of a single witty anecdote.

“I make my life laugh once or twice in the house, but nothing special,” he carried out by saying “I don’t think I’m that funny. I think I can be in the movies.”

He Didn’t Appreciate Swearing

When asked about the reason behind his long absence from big and small screens alike, Gene Wilder responded that he would have gladly accepted roles in movies if it weren’t for all the swearing. The actor was not that picky; he just wanted to work with a good script that didn’t involve bombing, loud noises, and swearing.

According to him, those kinds of movies, including 3D films, were not suited for his skills, so the actor preferred to wait for the right role, rather than to star in something that did not go along with his principles.

 “If you go to some movies, can’t they just stop and talk, instead of swearing? That put me off a lot.”

He Created the Mystery of Willy Wonka

When asked about his iconic role in Roald Dahl’s adaptation, Gene Wilder declared that he felt like something was amiss with the original screenplay, so he came up with an original idea:

“I wanted to come out with a cane, come down slowly, have it stick into one of the bricks, get up, fall over, roll around, and they all laugh and applaud. The director asked, ‘What do you want to do that for?’ I said because from that time on, no one will know if lying or telling the truth.”

Gene Wilder was pronounced dead Monday morning at his house in Stamford. The actor was 83 years old.

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The Hannibal season 3 finale came and went and pulled at all the right heart strings. We cried, we laughed, we “aww”-ed, we reflected on psychological, philosophical and existential thoughts.

And with the future of the show still uncertain, who knows when and if we may get to see how our two main characters survived that final moment. But the good news is that Bryan Fuller, showrunner, and Martha De Laurentiis, producer, are still investigating potential outlets for a season 4, as well as potential financing for a feature film.

But even if the stars align, we are at least two years away from further exploring the relationship between Will Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter. So rather then focus on the future, let’s take a moment to reflect on a few of the scenes from the finale. After all, we’ll remember them for years to come.

1) Dolarhyde dies in the first scene of the episode. Wait! What? Yup. Hannibal is the only show that could make me genuinely believe that a major antagonist such as The Great Red Dragon could actually die in the first 5 minutes of an episode. Of course, like most fannibals, I had seen promotional photos of the episode and knew that couldn’t possibly be the case. But ignoring my knowledge, the execution was perfectly believable.

Dolarhyde started out by testing Reba to see if he can trust her, but when she tried to make a run for it, Dolarhyde took her back to the bedroom, set the house on fire, gave a speech about not being able to watch Reba burn alive, and pretended to shoot himself in the face.

The Ravenstag also makes a cameo in the flames.

2) Dolarhyde lives! It turns out that he planted some teeth on the body of a guy that he kidnapped, shot him in the face, and dropped him on the ground for Reba to feel and confirm to the FBI that she definitely felt a body. One that she believed was Dolarhyde’s.

Of course, we only realize this when Dolarhyde attacks Will in his motel room, and the FBI profiler convinces The Great Red Dragon that killing Hannibal is in his best interest.

3) Dolarhyde dies. For real this time. After several cryptic conversations between Will and Jack, Will and Bedelia, and Will and Hannibal, the two main characters team up to take down The Great Red Dragon together. All three men involved in the fight – Will, Hannibal, Dolarhyde – are drenched in blood and barely standing on their feet after suffering several cuts and stabbings.

It’s a visually beautiful and emotionally powerful scene that ends with the audience both crying and cheering when Will and Hannibal embrace and Will pulls both of them over the edge of the cliff. The wait for season 4 isn’t going to drive anyone crazy, right? RIGHT?

4) Just like last season, the audience was treated to a post-credits scene. This one showed Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier getting ready to dine on her own leg and sitting at a table set for three. Is she waiting for Hannibal and Will to join her? I imagine so.

5) The last two scenes of the episode also have a Siouxsie Sioux song running throughout them. It’s the artists first in eight years. According to Fuller, who’s a huge fan of hers, Sioux “said she hadn’t been inspired to write in a long time, but that Hannibal had inspired her”.

The song is titled “Love Crime”, and composed by Siouxsie Sioux and Brian Reitzell.

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