Documentary film producer and director Mel Stuart died of cancer on 9 August 2012, at his home in Los Angeles. Born in New York City on 2 September 1928, he won an Emmy in 1964 for The Making of the President 1960, and was nominated for four other Emmys and for an Oscar (for Four Days in November).
While attending New York University, he changed his career path from composing to filmmaking. He then worked for a time as a researcher for CBS News’ The 20th Century (hosted by Walter Cronkite. Then he linked up with David L. Wolper in the 1960s, and began making documentaries. He went independent in 1980.
Stuart made only a few forays into the world of fiction on screen, but he’ll long be remembered for directing Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) with Gene Wilder in the title role. According to MSN, the movie “was his response to a young reader of the Roald Dahl children’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Stuart’s daughter Madeline asked her dad to make a movie of the book she loved.” 11-year-old Madeline has a cameo role in the film, as a student in a classroom scene.
He also directed the comedy-romance If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), and I Love My Wife (1970).
He is survived by his daughter and two sons.