Director Of ‘Willy Wonka’ Passes Away At 83

Mel Stuart, the director of the highly influential classic film 'Willy Wonka' passed away at in his Los Angeles home due to melanoma on thursday night

LOS ANGELES - Filmmaker Mel Stuart, director of the 1971 musical classic “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” and dozens of documentaries, has died at the age of 83.

Stuart’s daughter Madeline Stuart said he died of melanoma at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday night.

New York-born Stuart produced or directed more than 180 films, including documentaries ranging from politics (“The Making of the President 1960“) to art (“Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde“) and music such as his 1973 film “Wattstax” about African-American singers.

His prolific output for big and small screen earned him four Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and numerous prizes from festivals round the world.

But it was his film adaptation of novelist Roald Dahl’s dark fantasy “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” that brought him the most fame, and it was inspired by a request from his daughter.

“It was a favorite book of mine as a child, and I came home one day and asked him if he could make a movie of it, and he did,” Madeline Stuart told Reuters on Friday.

She also had a small part in a classroom scene. “There are not many kids get their wishes come true that way,” the filmmaker’s daugher, now an interior designer, said.

“He did so many things and we are proud of him. ‘Willy Wonka’ when it was released wasn’t much of a hit movie. It wasn’t until years later that it achieved this extraordinary cult status.”

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