Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory director Mel Stuart has died aged 83.
His daughter, Madeline Stuart, said he died on Thursday night of cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
Mel Stuart attends the 40th Anniversary of Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory
Although most famous in the UK for the 1971 musical fantasy Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder, Stuart was also an award-winning documentary maker who had made over 180 films.
He was nominated for an Oscar in 1965 for his documentary, Four Days in November, about the assassination of John F Kennedy and won an Emmy for The Making of the President 1960.
From left, Paris Themmen, who portrayed Mike Teevee, Denise Nickerson, who portrayed Violet Beauregarde, director Mel Stuart, Julie Cole, who portrayed Veruca Salt, and Rusty Goffe, who played the cart-wheeling Oompa-Loompa.
He decided to make Willy Wonka after his daughter Madeline asked him to make her a film about a book she loved - Roald Dahl children's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
With Wilder as the chocolate factory magnate (and 11-year-old Madeline in a cameo role as a student in a classroom scene), it became an enduring family favourite still watched today.
Here's a clip...