Augustus Gloop actor from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is completely unrecognisable now
As weird as it may be for some older film fans, there is now a whole generation of people who are not nostalgic for the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but for the controversial 2005 version starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
The Depp-led film, directed by Tim Burton, came out to mostly positive reviews from critics with an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, but fans were much more split on the project.
The fan score on the site sits at 51%, but despite this there is a whole generation of film fans who have a great deal of nostalgia for this Roald Dahl adaptation, not the 1971 Gene Wilder version.
Burton’s version has a pretty iconic cast, with Helena Bonham Carter playing Mrs Bucket and the actor who played Charlie Bucket, Freddie Highmore, going on to become a very successful actor in his own right, appearing in The Good Doctor, Bates Motel, and The Golden Compass.
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One of the most memorable parts in both the 1971 and 2005 versions however is the character of Augustus Gloop, the food-obsessed child who is the first to win a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s factory.
The 1971 version’s Augustus Gloop, Michael Böllner, retired from acting shortly after the film
In the 1971 version of the movie he was played by Michael Böllner, who retired from acting after just a few roles and became a tax accountant.
Böllner reportedly had little idea of how popular the movie was due to Germany rarely re-screening the film after its release, discovering years later that it had become a worldwide hit.
Böllner, who is a tax lawyer, says his clients have no idea he was in the legendary movie.
Marking the original movie's 50 year anniversary in 2021, Böllner reunited with his surviving co-stars to see what they're up to all these years later.
And during this interview, which aired on WGN Morning News in the US, Böllner revealed that the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory isn't particularly well-known in his native Germany... meaning no one really knows about his role in it.
He told the hosts: "The film is not famous in Germany. Nobody knew of the film until the version with Johnny Depp came out [in 2005].
"So when I tell people I was a part of the Willy Wonka movie, nobody knows."
Previously on an interview with This Morning, Böllner, 62, admitted that he didn't have any idea how huge the movie would end up becoming.
When asked by then hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby if he anticipated the flick to be such a runaway success, he replied: "No, not at all.
"I just went down to make this movie, stayed there for a few weeks and I didn't really know what was going on. I thought, 'This is just a movie and it will fade away very quickly'."
Although he now crunches numbers for a living, Böllner admitted that he does enjoy going along to conventions and meeting up with his old castmates.
He told Holly: "Yes it's really fun. It's a kind of strange, different world for me.
"I am usually doing taxes, but having fans and being famous in the UK and USA, it's really great, fantastic."
Böllner, who was just 12 when the movie was made, starred in one of its most memorable scenes - when greedy Augustus falls into the chocolate river and ends up being sucked into a giant pipe.
And the reality of shooting that scene was almost as grim, with the actor-turned-lawyer revealing that it was actually cold, dirty water in the 'river'.
He told This Morning: "It was cold water - terrible, stinking water. It had been there for weeks and it was very shallow, just 10cm deep.
"There was a small space of about a square metre where I had to jump in. It was dangerous because the water was not clear." Yummy.
The 2005 version of the film saw Philip Wiegratz take on the role, and he had a bit more success than Böllner.
Wiegratz, who played Gloop in the 2005 version, had some success in German TV and film, but also quit acting and is now an IT Business Analyst
Wiegratz went on to work in TV and Film for another eight years after this, appearing in a successful German film Wild Chicks.
Similarly though the German actor has left acting behind, last appearing in a movie or TV show in 2013 and, according to his LinkedIn, he is an IT Business Analyst.
The at-the-time 12-year-old was put in a fat suit for the role which, unsurprisingly given its been 20 years, mean that it’s now nearly impossible to recognise the former child star.
Even though you’d struggle to pick me out of a school line-up considering most of us look so different as a kid, how different Wiegratz looks will make many feel a bit old if they still think of him as Augustus Gloop.
He rarely appears at public events, having last posted on social media all the way back in 2022.
In 2024 however he appeared at an event in Berlin promoting the immersive ‘Tim Burton's Labyrinth’ event which featured a room based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, being pictured alongside the actor who played his mother Mrs Gloop Franziska Troegner.
He was then spotted at a film convention in November 2025 by a German movie influencer Christopher Schmidt, who fittingly captioned his video of their chance encounter ‘Who would have recognized him?’
The franchise is still beloved by fans, with Timothee Chalamet starring as a young Willie Wonka in a surprisingly fun origin story helmed by Paddington director Paul King.
Speaking about why people love the Wonka films so much, Chalamet said about Wonka: "It's the easiest movie to talk about. It's the most fun to talk about and my confidence grows in talking about it because it's just a treat. It makes people feel great."
Topics: TV and Film
Jess Battison