Peter Ostrum was born in Dallas, Texas in 1957, but spent much of his childhood in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Cleveland that he began acting professionally, appearing in children’s theater productions at the Cleveland Play House. The story goes that talent scouts at Paramount in the 1970s were scouring children’s theaters for potential actors to play the five central children in a film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, “Charlie and the chocolate factory.
Ostrum, 12, was invited to pose for some Polaroids and was recorded reading passages from Dahl’s book into a tape recorder. He also sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” as proof of his singing abilities. The footage and recordings were then flown to New York and shown to the film’s producers. Ostrum was perfect and beat out many, many other kids for the role of Charlie Bucket. His stage experience gave him an advantage. “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (retitled to highlight the zany chocolatier played by Gene Wilder) was filmed in Germany in the late 1970s and released in the United States on June 30, 1971.
“Willy Wonka” received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert gave it four starscomparing it favorably to the “Wizard of Oz”. However, it was not a smash hit at the cinema and actually fell into obscurity for many years. It wasn’t until Paramount’s distribution rights expired and Warner Bros. bought the film in the 1980s as it became more popular. WB aired “Willy Wonka” extensively on television and, when the VHS market exploded, distributed the film widely. A new generation discovered it and it became a popular cult.
Even though it counts as an achievement, 12-year-old Peter Ostrum probably wasn’t happy that his film failed at the box office. Ostrum has given numerous interviews about his days on “Willy Wonka.” and how his career ended while he was still in high school.
Peter Ostrum was offered a three-film deal, but turned it down
In an interview with NPR in 2000Ostrum said working on “Willy Wonka” was like being an exchange student, since he had to continue his studies while living in Germany for about three months. He was even able to witness the first construction work on the Olympic Park, built for the next Olympic Games in 1972. He kept one of the clapperboards from the film as a souvenir. Overall, filming “Willy Wonka” was a good time. In the 2023 documentary “Remembering Gene Wilder,” Ostrum talked about how much fun working with Wilder was, as he took the trouble to talk to the child actors and treat them like professional colleagues.
Before its release, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” looked like a potential hit for Paramount (a strange thought, considering how strange the film was). Ostrum carried the film so well that Paramount’s David L. Wolper offered him a three-picture deal, thinking he had found a bankable new child star. Ostrum, however, refused the offer. Even at his age, he understood that contracts locked actors into certain projects and preferred the idea of choosing which films he worked on and when. Ostrum, on the contrary, returned to school to study.
Ostrum continued to audition for stage roles, but he never seemed to have any success. “Willy Wonka” was kind of a bomb, so it didn’t do much for his career. By the time Ostrum was around 17 and no other major opportunities presented themselves, he retired from acting. Ostrum disliked being in the spotlight, refused many interviews and shunned “Willy Wonka”, preferring to talk about other things. For years, he even told people that it wasn’t him in “Willy Wonka,” but his brother. In the NPR interview, Ostrum admitted that he even kept his role a secret from his wife. It wasn’t until he was about to meet his wife’s mother for the first time that he brought it up. He wanted a normal job.
Dr. Ostrum is now retired from veterinary medicine and acts
After Ostrum retired from acting, he pursued a new passion: veterinary medicine. Ostrum’s family bought a horse when he was still a teenager and the young man was very impressed by the veterinarian who came to care for the animal. After high school, Ostrum took a year off and moved to Pennsylvania to apply for a job at the Delaware Equine Center, which involved grooming horses. Ostrum was at a crossroads; he could return to California and pursue his acting career as a young adult, or he could go to school and become a veterinarian. He decided to do the latter. In 1984, he earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Cornell.
Dr. Ostrum spent most of his medical career treating cows and horses at the Countryside Veterinary Clinic in New York. Now 67 years old, Ostrum has been retired for a year. He has long cared about animals and lives his true passion. He has two children with his wife, Loretta.
Over the years, Dr. Ostrum has occasionally acknowledged his presence in “Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory.” In 2013, him and some of his “Wonka” co-stars appeared as a judge on an episode of “Top Chef: Just Desserts”. He has spoken on several DVD editions of “Willy Wonka,” making his face more visible now that the film has become a cult phenomenon. He sometimes leverages his fame into lucrative promotional offers; he once helped Dunkin’ Donuts with a promotion involving free train passes in Massachusetts.
It seems Dr. Ostrum always lived the life he wanted. And those occasional $10 royalty checks will always remind him of that movie he made when he was 12.
