Kiss Me Like A Stranger: My Search for Love and Art (29 page)

As I was nearing the end of this book, recalling the tortures that Gilda had gone through and how she screamed and pounded on the bed, scaring the daylights out of Sparkle and me, I remembered how I had begged her to treat me at least with the kindness that she showed to every stranger she met. With Karen, because of some accidental beneficence, which I still don’t understand, loving her each day feels almost the way it did when she and I first met. So the title Gilda gave me that April afternoon fourteen years ago took on a significance that I never would have imagined.

To my sister, Corinne Pearlman, who always led the way.

To my editor, Elizabeth Beier, whose great power was in her gentle hints and suggestions.

To my friend, William Sarnoff, who steered me through uncharted waters.

The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Actor Prepares, An
(Stanislavsky)

Actors Studio

Actors Studio Theater

Adler, Renata

Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, The. See
Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother
)

“After a While” (Shoffstall)

Aimée, Anouk

Aldrich, Alida

Aldrich, Robert

Allen, Woody

Anderson, Judith

Anderson, Maxwell

Arkin, Alan

Baldwin, James

Bancroft, Anne

Barrymore, Ethel

Basic Instinct
(film)

Bast, Robert

Baum, Marty

Beatty, Warren

Berghof, Herbert

Bergman, Ingmar

Bernard, Miss

Black Bart. See
Blazing Saddles

Black/Foxe Military Institute

Blazing Saddles
(film)

Bolcom, William

Bonnie and Clyde
(film)

Boyd, Dr.

Boyle, Peter

Braille Institute (Los Angeles)

Brecht, Bertolt

Breton, Denise

Brillstein, Bernie

Brooks, James

Brooks, Mel

and
Blazing Saddles

on directing

and
The Producers

and Gene Wilder

and
Young Frankenstein

Bruce, Nigel

Buddy (cousin)

Bull, Joanna

Burstyn, Ellen

CA-125

Gene Wilder’s promotion of

Caesar, Sid

Cambridge Drama Festival

Casablanca
(film)

Cat and the Canary, The
(Bob Hope film)

Cat and the Canary, The
(Willard play)

Catch-22
(film)

Channing, Carol

Chaplin, Charlie

Charles, Prince

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(Dahl)

Chicago Arts Institute

Circle in the Square Theater

Circus, The
(Chaplin film)

City Lights
(Chaplin film)

Clarence Derwent Award

Clark, Jim

Clark, Seema

Clear and Present Danger
(film)

Cobb, Lee J.

Columbia Pictures

comedy

Complaisant Lover, The
(Greene)

Connaught Hotel (London)

Cooper, Gary

Cornell, Katharine

Crawford, Cheryl

Crisp, Quentin

Crucible, The
(Miller)

Cunningham, John

Dahl, Roald

Dailey, Dan

David (Irish boy)

Davis, Bette

Dear Theo
(van Gogh letters)

Death of a Salesman
(Miller)

DeLuise, Dom

Dennis, Sandy

Dexter, John

Dibby (Gilda’s nanny)

Dick (Valley Forge patient)

Dickinson, Emily

Doctor Zhivago
(film)

Don the Beachcomber (Los Angeles)

Donen, Stanley

Douglas, Kirk

Duane (Gilda’s cousin)

Dunnock, Mildred

Dynamite Tonight
(Weinstein/Bolcom)

Epstein, Jerry

Evans, Evan

Evening with Quentin Crisp, An

Everything You Always Wanted to Know

About Sex
(film)

Feldman, Edward

Feldman, Marty

Fell, Norman

Fellini, Federico

Finney, Albert

Fonda, Jane

“For Esmé, with Love and Squalor” (Salinger)

Ford, Harrison

Fox, Gerald

Friedman, Bruce J.

Frisco Kid, The
(film)

Garr, Eddy

Garr, Teri

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(Broadway)

Georgina (baby-sitter)

Ghost Breakers
(film)

Gielgud, John

Gilda’s Clubs

Glazier, Sydney

Goddard, Paulette

Goldberg, Whoopi

Goode, Reginald

Goode, Rita

Goodman, David Zelag

Gottlieb, Herman

Grant, Cary

Great Expectations
(film)

Greene, Graham

Greenspan, Ezra

Greystones (Irish village)

Grodin, Charles

Gruskoff, Michael

Gunilla

Hackman, Gene

Hagen, Uta

Hamlet
(Shakespeare)

Hanky Panky
(film)

Harper, Valerie

Harris, Barbara

Harrison, George

Harvey, Mary

Haunted Honeymoon
(film)

Hayes, Helen

HB Studio

Henreid, Paul

Hesitation Waltz
(Wilder screenplay)

Higgins, Collin

Hiken, Gerald

Hiller, Arthur

Hitchcock, Alfred

Hope, Bob

Horace (Carlyle doorman)

Howard, John

Howard, Sidney

Hull, Howard

Hunt, John

Hunt for Red October
(film)

Hurst, David

Hussein, Waris

Importance of Being Earnest, The
(Wilde)

improvisation

It’s Always Something
(Radner)

Jonesy (Black/Foxe student)

Jordan (Gene’s nephew)

Julie (dog)

Kahn, Madeline

Kanzell, Betty

Karla

Kaye, Danny

Kazan, Elia

Kitt, Eartha

Knapp, Robert

Ladd, Alan, Jr.

Lamb, Wally

Lampert, Zohra

Late Christopher Bean, The
(Howard)

Lawrence of Arabia
(film)

Leachman, Cloris

Lear, Norman

Lerner, Alan Jay

Levine, Joe

Lewis, Jerry

Little Prince
(film)

Little Prince
(Saint-Exupéry)

Look Homeward Angel
(Wolfe)

Lovers, The
(film)

Luv
(Schisgal)

Macbeth
(Shakespeare)

McCarthy, Eugene

Macintosh (Black/Foxe student)

McKenna, Siobhan

McMartin, John

Mars, Kenny

Marsh, Sandra

Marsh, Terry

Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, The
(TV show)

Marty, Bob

Mary (Gilda’s assistant)

May, Elaine

Mayer, Louis B.

Mazursky, Paul

Medavoy, Mike

Medea
(Euripides)

Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Menotti, Gian Carlo

“Metamorphosis” (Kafka)

method acting

Miller, Arthur

Millionairess, The
(Shaw)

Milwaukee Players

Montand, Yves

Montecito Hotel (Los Angeles)

Moreau, Jeanne

Mostel, Zero

Mother Courage
(Brecht)

Much Ado About Nothing
(Shakespeare)

Murder in a Small Town
(TV show)

Naked Civil Servant, The
(Crisp)

“Necklace, The” (de Maupassant)

Neufeld, Mace

New York League for the Hard of Hearing

New York Times

New Yorker
magazine

Newhart, Bob

Newman, Randy

Nichols, Mike

Nimer, Stephen D.

North by Northwest
(film)

Now Voyager
(film)

O’Brian, Hugh

Old Vic Theater School

Oliver
(film)

On Golden Pond
(film)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
(Wasserman play)

Our Town
(Wilder)

Parsons, Estelle

Pearlman, Corinne Wilder

acting career

Pearlman, Gil

Penn, Arthur

Play of the Week, The
(TV program)

Poitier, Sidney

Portlock, Carol

Preminger, Otto

Producers, The
(film)

casting

filming

public relations

reviews

Peter Sellers and

title change

Pryor, Richard

Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx
(film)

box office

Quinn, Anthony

Quintero, José

Radner, Gilda

career

Gene Wilder, leaving 1734 house to

Gene Wilder, marriage to

Gene Wilder, meeting and courtship

Radner, Gilda (health)

bowel obstruction

bulimia

death of

ovarian cancer

pregnancy and miscarriage

Redgrave, Michael

Reginald Goode Summer Theater

Reiner, Rob

Renoir, Jean

Rhinoceros
(film)

Robards, Jason, Jr.

Robbins, Jerome

Roche, Eugene

Roger (Valley Forge patient)

Romeo and Juliet
(Shakespeare)

Romy

Ronnie (Black/Foxe student)

Rooney, Mickey

Roots
(Wesker)

Rosenthal, Dr.

Ross, Duncan

Roth, Richard

Rydell, Mark

Saks, Gene

Salinger, J. D.

Saturday Night Live

Schisgal, Murray

See No Evil, Hear No Evil
(film)

Segal, Alex

Sellers, Peter

Selznick, Irene Mayer

Shapiro, Bob

Shargai, Victor

Shaw, George Bernard

Shaw, Glen Byam

Shawn, Dick

Shawshank Redemption
(film)

She’s Come Undone
(Lamb)

Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother
(film)

as director

success of

Siberman, Corinne (sister).
See
Pearlman, Corinne Wilder

Siberman, Jerry.
See
Wilder, Gene

Silver Streak
(film)

and improvisation

“shoe polish” scene

success of

Signoret, Simone

Sills, Paul

Silvers, Phil

Smith, Gail

Sonny and Cher
show

Sordi, Alberto

Sparkle (Gilda’s Yorkshire terrier)

and Gene and Gilda’s wedding

and Gilda’s grave

Spoleto Festival

Springtime for Hitler
.
See
Producers, The

Stanislavsky, Constantin

See also
method acting

Stir Crazy
(film)

the watermelon incident

Strasberg, Lee

Start the Revolution Without Me
(film)

box office

Steiner, Ingrid

Streetcar Named Desire, A
(Williams)

Stuart, Mel

Suspicion
(film)

Susskind, David

Sutherland, Donald

Suzie (Sloan-Kettering night nurse)

Taylor, Renee

technique

Thank You All Very Much
(film)

Thursday’s Game
(film for televison)

Tough Guy
(Wilder screenplay)

Tracy, Spencer

Tri Star

Twelfth Night
(Shakespeare)

Twelve Chairs
(film)

20th Century Fox

University of Iowa

Up in Arms

“Upon Our Marriage” (Wilder)

Valentino, Rudolph

van Gogh, Vincent

Veidt, Conrad

Veidt, Lily

Veitch, John

Walker, Nancy

Wallach, Eli

Wallis, Marjorie (“Margie”)

Walsh, Gabriel

Warner Bros.

Waterston, Sam

Wayne, John

Webb, Karen.
See
Wilder, Karen Webb

Weinstein, Arnold

Weinstein, Hannah

Weinstein, Sidney

Welles, Orson

Wellness Community

Wesker, Arnold

Westport Country Playhouse

White House, The
(Hoiby/Hotchner)

White Sheik, The
(film)

Wilder, Gene

analysis

anti-Semitism and

childhood

David (Irish boy), attempt to adopt

the “Demon” (compulsion to pray)

education

and father

“Gene’s Dream,”

military career

and mother

and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

as a painter

political involvement

travel

Wilder, Gene (romantic attachments)

Billie

Seema Clark

Teri Garr

Rita Goode

Gunilla

Jessie

Joan

Karla

sexual education

Wilder, Gene (1st wife: Mary)

Wilder, Gene (2nd wife: Mary Jo

daughter Katie

Katie, estrangement from

marriage

Wilder, Gene (3rd wife: Gilda Radner)

CA-125, promotion of

and Gilda’s bulimia

and Gilda’s cancer

and Gilda’s death