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Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
4. Actors who were considered for the titular role included Fred Astaire, Joel Grey, Ron Moody and Jon Pertwee, though comedian Spike Milligan was Dahl's first choice.
5. But for director Mel Stuart, Gene Wilder was the only person who could play the eccentric chocolatier.
“His inflection was perfect," Stuart said in Lucy Mangan's 2016 book, Inside Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. "He had the sardonic, demonic edge that we were looking for."
While producer David Lloyd Wolper thought Wilder was "perfect," he tried to stop Stuart from pursuing the actor so that they could negotiate a deal on his salary. But the filmmaker couldn't help but run out into the hall to tell Wilder that he had the part.
6. Before signing on, Wilder had one very specific request.
"When I make my first entrance, I'd like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk toward the crowd with a limp," Wilder wrote in a letter to Stuart. "After the crowd sees Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet...but I keep on walking, until I realize that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause."
As for why this was so important for Wilder? "From that time on, " he explained in his autobiography, Kiss Me like a Stranger, "no one will know if I'm lying or telling the truth.”
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