Gene Wilder's Heartbreaking Final Words Before His Death Revealed By Widow
Gene Wilder's widow recalled some of the actor's last words before he passed away in 2016 at age 83.
In the "Remembering Gene Wilder" documentary, Wilder's widow, Karen Boyer, remembered her late husband's final days and last words.
Boyer revealed that she and the star of the 1971 film "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" were listening to Ella Fitzgerald's classic song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" when she heard him last speak.
"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 said, 'I trust you,'" Boyer said.
She continued, "And then he said, 'I love you.' That's the last thing he said."
(Photo : Evan Agostini/Getty Images)
Boyer also talked about her late husband's Alzheimer's disease diagnosis leading to his death, per the New York Post.
"He never really accepted that he had Alzheimer's, and maybe by the time we found out that's what it was, his hippocampus didn't let him remember," she shared.
Boyer continued, "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."
Despite the difficult times brought about by Wilder's disease, Boyer remembered him as "wonderful" and "the best."
"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," the actor's fourth wife said.
(Photo : Nick Laham/Getty Images))
Karen Boyer was married to the "Young Frankenstein" actor from 1991 until he passed away on Aug. 29, 2016, in Stamford, Connecticut. Wilder died due to complications from Alzheimer's disease, per the BBC.
Wilder met Boyer, a supervisor for the New York League for the Hard of Hearing, when he needed her expertise in his 1989 film "See No Evil, Hear No Evil."
The couple got married in 1991. It was the "Blazing Saddle" actor's fourth marriage. His past wives included Mary Mercier, Mary Joan Schutz and Gilda Radner.
