Willy Wonka star looks unrecognisable years after quitting acting and leaving Hollywood
The 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory might be seared into the brains of generations of children but the child who played Charlie never appeared in another movie.
Peter Ostrum is his name, and he was cast as Charlie after being spotted by talent agents looking for the right actor to play the boy who wins a golden ticket to tour the titular chocolate factory.
Once he was done with filming the movie alongside Gene Wilder he was offered a three movie contract but turned it down, later admitting he'd wanted to keep 'the freedom to choose what he played, and in what picture'.
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However, he didn't go on to appear in further film roles leaving the iconic movie as his only big screen appearance, as he instead decided to pursue a different career.
55 years on from the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory being released he looks very different and lives a life mostly removed from the celebrity he might have had.
How different is Peter Ostrum’s life now after playing Charlie?
Ostrum never starred in another film again, making Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory his only role.
Rather than trying to become a celebrity he instead became a veterinarian, inspired by the vet who would help look after horses his family tended to.
Speaking about this in an interview with the New York Post, he said: “Back then when the film came out there was no red-carpet premiere. I was in my hometown in Ohio and they had an opening there and I was the only one there.
“There was a little bit of fanfare but not much and the film died a quiet death. It had lukewarm reviews and people forgot about it.
“It wasn’t until video 10 years later that it resurfaced and it took on a life of its own.”
A retired father-of-two now, Ostrum would visit schools every year about the film, something which saw a huge uptick of interest after the 2005 Johnny Depp remake came out.
How much does Charlie actor Peter Ostrum make off the film?
A lot, lot less than you probably think.
In an interview he conducted back in 2018 at a screening of the movie at his local Snowtown Film Festival, he was asked about what he makes from the film.
He said that, due to residuals from screenings of the film on TV, he gets a cheque for $8 to $9 roughly every three months, despite the reboot making a whopping half a billion dollars.
In the same interview it is sweetly revealed that his wife, Loretta M. Lepkowski, didn’t know he had worked as an actor when she met him.
She said: “Once I saw it, I realized — ‘Wow, he had a major part.’”
Topics: Film, TV and Film, Celebrity, Money
Michael Slavin
