Where are they now? The kids from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 52 years later.

February 26, 2023

It's been 52 years since the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory captured the dark imagination of Roald Dahl and adapted it for our screens.

The film follows the story of five very lucky but very different children as they win highly sought-after 'Golden Tickets', admitting them entrance into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

The story acts like a fairytale with its strong moral message that intends to frighten children into learning that spoiled children get punished and good-hearted children get rewarded.

The film took a while to become staple viewing, but with time it has earned its spot as a classic.

Watch the original film trailer here. Post continues below.

Video via Paramount Pictures.

The Washington Post caught up with the cast for the film’s 50th Anniversary in 2021, revealing that the 'Wonka Kids' have kept in touch with one another.

"They’re the people who’ve known me longest, and they’re the only people that shared that experience," said Julie Dawn Cole, who played Veruca Salt in the film. "They’re the only people that would understand it, because they were there."

February 26, 2023

These Movies Will Immediately Fix Your Life

The Spill

But while 'The Wonka Kids' shared an incredible childhood experience, we can’t help but wonder, where they are now?

Gene Wilder

One of the few established actors on the cast, Gene Wilder played the eccentric recluse Willy Wonka. Prior to the film, Wilder was best known for Bonnie and Clyde and The Producers.

However, his role as Willy Wonka skyrocketed his career and established the actor as a household name.

In 1974, he appeared in Blazing Saddles and co-wrote and starred in Young Frankenstein.

Two years later, Wilder was nominated for a Golden Globe for his 1976 performance in Silver Streak.

The actor later starred in the NBC sitcom Something Wilder, and he featured in a two-episode arc on Will and Grace, which won him an Emmy.

The man ultimately gained 37 acting credits, nine writing credits, and five directing credits before he pivoted to publishing books in 2003, most notably his memoir Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art.

Sadly, Wilder passed away in 2016, three years after his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

At the time, Wilder’s nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, announced his death: "It is with indescribable sadness and blues, but with spiritual gratitude for the life lived, that I announce the passing of husband, parent, and universal artist Gene Wilder."

He revealed that the actor had kept his diagnosis private as "he simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world".

Thank you Gene Wilder for all that you've given us. You'll be missed. pic.twitter.com/JU4GngwjqV
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) August 29, 2016

Peter Ostrum

Peter Ostrum was only 12 years old when he was scouted for the leading role of Charlie Bucket. Plucked directly out of his local children’s theatre, Ostrum was asked to audition for the role by reading excerpts from Roald Dahl’s original novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

But it seems like the experience might have turned him off acting as Willy Wonka remains his only film credit and he later became a veterinary doctor.

According to an interview in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, they offered the child star a three-movie deal with the studio after filming wrapped, but he did not sign it.

"Everybody thinks that acting is such a glamorous profession, but it's a difficult profession," Ostrum told the journal.

"Acting was fine, but I wanted something more steady, and the key is to find something that you love doing, and that's what my profession has given to me."

After returning from filming Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in Germany, Ostum discovered his family had bought a new horse. Watching the veterinarian work "made a huge impression" on him and in 1984, he graduated Cornell University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

Today he works as a vet in New York, with a particular focus on dairy cows.

Image: Paramount Pictures/Getty

Julie Dawn Cole

Julie Dawn Cole will forever be the talented girl who brought Veruca Salt to life. Like a number of the child actors cast in the film, Veruca was Cole’s first role.

After the film, she went on to find some success in television, snagging roles in various shows like ITV's And Mother Makes Three, Married for Life, and BBC's Casualty, Angels and Poldark.

Most notably, she starred as Pip Coulter for 14 episodes in Emmerdale between 1978 and 2006.

In 2011, Cole published a memoir of her time on set, titled I Want It Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Pivoting in 2013, Cole became a psychotherapist at a cancer centre. Speaking to The Mixed-Up Files, the child star shared that it was time to "do something more meaningful."

Image: Paramount Pictures/Getty

Denise Nickerson

Denise Nickerson played Violet Beauregarde and went on to act for only a short time.

Prior to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Nickerson was already known for her role as Amy Jenning in Dark Shadows.

Her most notable work after the film includes starring in The Electric Company, her guest role on The Brady Bunch, and her final acting role in 1978 as Larry Wilde in Zero to Sixty.

After only seven years in the industry, Nickerson decided to step away from acting at 21 years old. Speaking to Media Mikes, Nickerson revealed she wanted to pursue a career in law.

"I had always wanted to be an attorney. However, my parents spent all my money, and it was a lot. In a slow year like 1966, I made $46,000.

"But all the money was gone and my hopes of being an attorney were dashed. So I’m 21 with no money to go to college and I know I need a job."

Nickerson didn’t want to go back into acting, so she worked as a receptionist and later as an office manager.

In 2019, Nickerson died at 62 after a stroke.

Image: Paramount Pictures/Getty

Paris Themmen

The ever annoying Mike Teavee was played by the talented Paris Themmen in his first feature film role.

Themmen had experience in television commercials and Broadway prior to the film, and in Julie Dawn Cole’s interview with The Mixed Up Files, she shared that he had desperately wanted a singing role in Willy Wonka.

"It still annoys Paris, he was desperate to have a song, and used to walk around singing 'Where Is Love' hoping they might relent and write him one!" she shared.

Themmen went on to have an interesting and varied career.

He continued acting for a short while, appearing most notably in Star Trek: Voyager. The actor also had a keen interest behind the lens, working as first assistant director on the film The Owner in 2012.

He cultivated a passion for travelling as a young man and by his 30th birthday, Themmen had backpacked through over 30 countries and co-founded a travel service Access International which arranged chartered flights to Europe for backpackers.

After stints in real estate, financial consulting and casting, Themmen found himself as a Walt Disney Imagineer when they were building Euro Disney.

Image: Paramount Pictures/Getty

Michael Bollner

German actor Michael Bollner starred as Augustus Gloop in the film. The role remains his only acting credit.

After the film, his parents wanted him to focus on his education instead of acting as Bollner had dreams of going to law school.

As of 2016, Bollner is a working tax lawyer in Germany.

Image: Paramount Pictures/Getty

Jack Albertson

Jack Albertson, who played the fan favourite character Grandpa Joe, had been a working actor for a few decades with his career beginning in the 1940s.

The actor had continuous acting work until 1981 when he passed away aged 74 from cancer.

Image: Paramount Pictures/Getty

Diana Sowle

Diana Sowle played the doe-eyed, hardworking Mrs Bucket, and she pulled the heartstrings of everyone who saw her.

She’d only had experience in the German theatre scene before being cast in the film and after Willy Wonka, Sowle only appeared in two more films, Guarding Tess and Clear and Present Danger.

Most surprising of all is that Sowle voiced characters for two of the Fallout video games.

However, it seems theatre was more her passion, with Sowle performing as Eleanor Shubert in one of the longest running plays in the world, Shear Madness.

After her husband, who worked for the CIA, died in 2013, she stopped acting altogether.

She later passed away aged 88 in 2018.

Image: Paramount Pictures/Getty

Günter Meisner

Meisner’s depiction of the terrifying rival candymaker Arthur Slugworth gives us goosebumps to this day.

The German actor had already done several roles in German and English films, racking up an impressive 154 film credits before passing away in 1994 aged 68.

Among his many achievements, Meisner’s most notable roles include his portrayal of Adolf Hitler on ITV's Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, in Ace of Aces and on ABC's The Winds of War.

Image: Paramount Pictures

Rusty Goffe

Rusty Goffe, now 74, was one of the men behind the cheeky orange faces of Willy Wonka’s Oompa Loompas.

While there was a group of 10 actors to cover the 'hundreds' that worked in the factory, Goffe’s face was heavily featured, and possibly the one you remember most.

From Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Willow, Fred Claus, Doctor Who and even four of the Harry Potter films, Goffe has starred in a number of films since Willy Wonka.