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Karen Boyer, Gene Wilder’s widow, recalled the last words her late husband said before his death in August 2016.
A new documentary “Remembering Gene Wilder” focused on the actor’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease and his final days.
In the film, Boyer recalled listening to Ella Fitzgerald’s legendary hit, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” with Gene before speaking for the last time.
“Music was playing in the background: Ella Fitzgerald was singing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ and I was lying next to him, and he sat on the bed and said, ‘I trust you,'” she said, according to People Magazine.
“And then he said, ‘I love you.’ That’s the last thing she said.”
Wilder died on August 29, 2016 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. She was 83 years old.
Boyer recalled the first time she realized Wilder was struggling with her memory when she couldn’t remember the title of “Young Frankenstein,” which she said was “her favorite movie.”
“He never really accepted that he had Alzheimer’s, and maybe when we found out that’s what it was, his hippocampus wouldn’t let him remember,” she said in the film.
“So I’m not sure he ever knew. When I saw him walk further away from me, my stomach hurt, but I had to keep smiling and tell him everything was okay.”
Boyer added: “Gene was wonderful; He was the best husband I think anyone could ask for. “To love and be loved is the best gift anyone could ask for, and we had it.”
Wilder was married four times. His third marriage to fellow comedian Gilda Radner, a member of the original “Saturday Night Live” cast, lasted from 1984 to 1989, when she died from complications of ovarian cancer.
The former couple met on the set of the Sydney Poitier-directed film “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.”
Brian Scott Mednick, who published a biography about the Hollywood icon titled “Gene Wilder: Funny and Sad,” recalled that Wilder was completely in love with Karen.
“Gene called Karen the great love of his life,” Mednick told Woman’s World in 2018. “It was his fourth and longest marriage; She died shortly before her 25th wedding anniversary.
Gene admitted that he was very unhappy with Gilda for a long time. He didn’t think he would remarry and said he didn’t believe in destiny.
“And he almost cried when he told an interviewer how passionate his love for Karen was. She said that she always felt that you make your life yours and then call it destiny, but Karen made her believe in destiny. Like any marriage, he was not without problems, but it was a very strong and loving marriage. “He just idolized her.”