Featured Image Credit: Silver Screen Collection via Getty Images
Topics: Film, TV and Film, Celebrity, Money
Michael Slavin
Topics: Film, TV and Film, Celebrity, Money
Though many envy actors for their lives of fame and fortune, some actors choose to leave it all behind after getting a small taste of it.
A high-profile example recently was the actor for Dewey refusing to return for the Malcolm in the Middle reboot after quitting acting over a decade back.
This is also the case for one of the stars of a film that amongst the most iconic ever created, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from 1971, based on the Roald Dahl novel.
While this may have only made $4 million at the time, roughly $75 million now adjusted for inflation, it has stood the test of time as one of the most well-known films ever.
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Starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka it follows a young kid, Charlie, who wins the opportunity to visit his chocolate factory along with four others.
Charlie is played by Peter Ostrum in the film, however, this was not the platform towards a wide and long career you’d probably expect from playing the role.
Ostrum never starred in another film again, making Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory his only role.
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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.
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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.’”