New York — Mel Stuart, an award-winning documentarian who also directed "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," has died. He was 83.
His daughter, Madeline Stuart, said he died Thursday night of cancer at his home in Los Angeles.
Stuart's documentaries include "The Making of the President 1960," for which he won an Emmy, as well as subsequent explorations of the 1964 and `68 campaigns. Other programs were "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and the Oscar-nominated "Four Days in November."
His groundbreaking 1973 film "Wattstax" focused on the Wattstax music festival of the previous year and Los Angeles' Watts community in the aftermath of the 1965 riots.
But while Stuart's documentaries won acclaim and cemented his reputation, he won a special sort of following with the 1971 musical fantasy "Willy Wonka."
That film was his response to a young reader of the Roald Dahl children's classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory": Stuart's daughter Madeline...
His daughter, Madeline Stuart, said he died Thursday night of cancer at his home in Los Angeles.
Stuart's documentaries include "The Making of the President 1960," for which he won an Emmy, as well as subsequent explorations of the 1964 and `68 campaigns. Other programs were "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and the Oscar-nominated "Four Days in November."
His groundbreaking 1973 film "Wattstax" focused on the Wattstax music festival of the previous year and Los Angeles' Watts community in the aftermath of the 1965 riots.
But while Stuart's documentaries won acclaim and cemented his reputation, he won a special sort of following with the 1971 musical fantasy "Willy Wonka."
That film was his response to a young reader of the Roald Dahl children's classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory": Stuart's daughter Madeline...
- 8/10/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Filmmaker Mel Stuart, best known for directing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, died last night in Beverly Hills, his daughter announced today. He was 83. Stuart spent most of his career producing and directing documentaries, and he was nominated for an Oscar in 1965 for his film Four Days in November. He won an Emmy in 1964 for producing The Making of the President 1960, and was nominated four more times over the course of his career. Stuart produced more than 50 films and TV shows, and his most recent work was 2005's PBS Pov special The Hobart Shakespeareans.
- 8/10/2012
- by Margaret Lyons
- Vulture
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