The filmmaker passed away from cancer at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday (09Aug12), his daughter Madeline Stuart tells the Associated Press.
He began his career in the 1960s making documentaries, winning an Emmy Award for The Making of the President 1960 and landing an Oscar nomination for Four Days in November, about the assassination of U.S. leader John F. Kennedy.
He took on the 1971 big screen adaptation of the Roald Dahl children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for his daughter Madeline, who was 11 years old when she shot her cameo role as a student in a classroom scene.
The musical, starring Gene Wilder as the madcap candy factory boss, has become a classic family favourite.
Stuart is survived by his daughter, as well as sons Andrew and Peter, who is also a filmmaker.
