Goodbye Candyman! Mel Stuart Director of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Dies
Sad news today. Mel Stuart, the director for the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, had lost his battle with cancer on Thursday. He was 83. Mel Stuart had a career that spans more than 50 years in Hollywood. Stuart spent much of his career creating documentaries and even earned an Oscar nomination in 1964 for Best Documentary Feature for his John F. Kennedy-assassination film, Four Days in November, but sadly lost to a French Documentary. Mel Stuart definitely made our childhoods a little sweeter as the director of the 1971 classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The best way I know to sum up the life of this wonderful man is with a quote from the famous candy maker, Willy Wonka. “There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be”, But like an everlasting gobstopper he will live on forever in Hollywood.
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