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‘Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory’ Cast: Where Are They Now?
When Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Manufacturing facility first invited viewers into its world of pure creativeness in 1971, the now-classic movie didn’t obtain such a candy reception. Field workplace numbers had been lackluster, and critiques for the large display adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing facility, had been “lukewarm at greatest,” Peter Ostrum, who performed Charlie Bucket, later recalled.
“When it got here out, it was not a field workplace success,” actor Julie Daybreak Cole (Veruca Salt) defined in 2019. “ I consider it ran in film theaters for a matter of weeks. After which it disappeared. It was not standard. It was truly forgotten after that. There was a interval in my life the place I by no means even talked about it. After which it wasn’t till the ‘80s once I discovered it had this cult standing.”
Certainly, the film turned a cult basic within the years following its theatrical launch, and, in 2014, the Library of Congress even named the “cinematic treasure” to the Nationwide Movie Registry. “We had been clearly making an attempt to do our greatest, however we had no concept that that movie would nonetheless resonate,” Ostrum instructed The Hollywood Reporter in 2016.
Though Gene Wilder, the movie’s titular star, and Oscar winner Jack Albertson, who performed Grandpa Joe, had been family names, the movie’s 5 baby actors largely left present enterprise after taking pictures the film. Right here’s your golden ticket the place the Willy Wonka solid is now:
Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Manufacturing facility”
Picture: Silver Display Assortment/Getty Photos
Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka)
Earlier than he died at age 83 from issues of Alzheimer’s Illness in 2016, Wilder (born Jerome Silberman) earned an Academy Award nomination for Finest Tailored Screenplay for 1974’s Younger Frankenstein (together with common collaborator Mel Brooks), in addition to a Golden Globe Finest Actor nod for 1976’s Silver Streak, by which he starred with frequent comedy associate Richard Pryor. It wasn’t till 2003, nevertheless, that he took dwelling a significant award: a Primetime Emmy for his visitor position as Mr. Stein in Will & Grace — his remaining onscreen efficiency.
In Wilder’s final main interview with Turner Basic Motion pictures in June 2013, he did share his disdain for Tim Burton’s 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing facility adaptation, by which Johnny Depp starred within the Willy Wonka position. “I believe it’s an insult,” Wilder mentioned. “Johnny Depp, I believe, is an effective actor, however I don’t look after that director. He’s a gifted man, however I don’t look after him doing stuff like he did.”
READ MORE: The Difficult Friendship of Comedy Duo Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder
Peter Ostrum (Charlie Bucket)
After his starring position as Willy Wonka’s Charlie Bucket, Ostrum determined the movie business “simply wasn’t for” him. As an alternative, he pursued a level in veterinary medication and earned his doctorate from Cornell College in 1984.“Persons are at all times inquisitive about what occurred to Charlie. Why wasn’t he in every other movies? Did he survive Hollywood?” he instructed a crowd on the College of Missouri in 2016. “I’m relieved to inform you that my life didn’t find yourself as a trainwreck.”
Now, Ostrum, a father of two, works as a senior associate at Countryside Veterinary Clinic in Upstate New York, the place he makes a speciality of cows and horses. His new profession path hasn’t taken him completely out of the highlight, nevertheless. In line with his clinic’s web site, he was lately featured on a actuality collection titled Vets on Name.
Jack Albertson dancing in entrance of Peter Ostrum in a scene from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Manufacturing facility”
Picture: Paramount/Getty Photos
Jack Albertson (Grandpa Joe)
An Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner, Jack Albertson returned to Broadway in 1972, co-starring with Sam Levene in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys. The identical 12 months, he additionally appeared within the catastrophe movie The Poseidon Journey earlier than co-starring reverse Freddie Prinze as a storage proprietor on the sitcom Chico and the Man from 1974 to 1978. (He earned one other Emmy in 1976 for the position.) Albertson was recognized with colorectal most cancers in 1978, although he saved his analysis non-public and continued to behave.
Though a household spokesperson mentioned the actor’s most cancers had been in remission, he later succumbed to the illness and died in November 1981 at age 74.
Julie Daybreak Cole (Veruca Salt)
Not like her costars, Cole parlayed her Willy Wonka debut right into a decades-long TV profession in her native United Kingdom, together with roles on BBC collection Angels and Poldark within the mid to late Nineteen Seventies and within the TV film remake of Camille alongside Colin Firth in 1984. She accomplished her most up-to-date onscreen position in 2013 earlier than retiring from appearing to coach as a psychotherapist.
Lately, Cole, the mom of two grown kids (with ex-husband, EastEnders actor Nick Wilton), lives in Hampshire, England along with her canine Hudson and works for a most cancers charity, per her official web site. Whereas selling her 2011 memoir, I Need it Now! — which incorporates letters she wrote to her mom whereas filming Willy Wonka in Germany — she referred to her baby actor costars as “lifelong household,” whom she nonetheless considers her “brothers and sisters in the present day.”
Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregarde)
Following her look in Willy Wonka, Denise Nickerson, who had a breakthrough position in 1968’s Darkish Shadows, later mentioned she auditioned for the position of the possessed Regan in 1973’s The Exorcist, however her mother and father thought the fabric too disturbing, per Deadline. Nickerson continued appearing on such collection as Search For Tomorrow, The Electrical Firm and The Brady Bunch earlier than stepping out of the highlight in favor of a profession in nursing, following her flip as Larry Wilde within the 1978 movie Zero To Sixty.
A long time after leaving present enterprise behind, Nickerson suffered a stroke in 2018 and died in July 2019 at a hospital close to her Colorado dwelling after her household eliminated her from life assist, her solely son, Josh, confirmed on Fb. She was 62.
The solid of “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Manufacturing facility” in 2001: (L – R) Michael Bollner (Augustus Gloop), Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregarde), Paris Themmen (Mike Teevee), Julie Daybreak Cole (Veruca Salt) and Peter Ostrum (Charlie Bucket)
Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Photos
Paris Themmen (Mike Teevee)
Paris Themmen’s appearing profession post-Willy Wonka included a job in a Broadway play referred to as The Rothchilds, in addition to industrial work. He later earned a BFA in theater from New York College, although he largely didn’t pursue appearing additional. Off display, Themmen says he’s held a number of jobs in finance, actual property, movie manufacturing, casting and even served as a Walt Disney Imagineer, to call a couple of.
He hasn’t completely left Hollywood behind, although. Along with working behind the scenes as a manufacturing assistant on 2011’s One thing Borrowed, he’s additionally appeared as himself in a number of actuality reveals, akin to Prime Chef: Simply Desserts and Cake Wars. Themmen even completed second as a Jeopardy! contestant in 2018, although late host Alex Trebek launched him as an entrepreneur and avid backpacker who has traveled to greater than 60 international locations, with out ever mentioning Willy Wonka.
Michael Bollner (Augustus Gloop)
Not like his younger costars, Michael Bollner didn’t have any non-public tutors on set whereas filming Willy Wonka. After the undertaking wrapped, nevertheless, the Germany native’s father insisted that he proceed his training, moderately than pursuing an appearing profession. He landed a pair extra bit elements abroad, however went on to pursue an accounting diploma and now works as a tax lawyer in Munich, Germany.
Regardless of his divergent profession path, Bollner nonetheless participates in fan meet and greets and solid reunions, together with one in Los Angeles in 2014. He additionally paid tribute to Wilder following the titular star’s 2016 dying, memorializing the actor as a “nice man” who “was very humorous” and “made numerous jokes” on set. “I did not have an enormous quantity of contact with him as my English was very poor at the moment and his German wasn’t so good,” he mentioned. “I remorse not talking to him once more within the years after the movie when my English had improved.”
