Gene Wilder has been acting since he was thirteen and writing for the screen since the early 1970s. After a small role in Bonnie and Clyde pulled him away from a career onstage, he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Leo Bloom in The Producers, which led to Blazing Saddles and then to another Academy nomination, this time for writing Young Frankenstein. Wilder has appeared in twenty-five feature films and a number of stage productions. His first book, about his own life, was "Kiss Me Like A Stranger", and was followed by the novels "My French Whore, The Woman Who Wouldn t "and" What Is This Thing Called Love?." Wilder lives in Connecticut with his wife, Karen.

Richard "Cactus" Pryor (1923–2011) began his career as a broadcaster at the end of World War II and was a popular humorist on radio for decades.