This is a list of characters in the 1964 Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, his 1972 sequel book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and the former's film adaptations, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017), as well as the prequel film to the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Wonka (2023). Listings include actors who have played the characters in various media.
Main characters Willy Wonka
In the novels and films, Willy Wonka is the eccentric owner of the world's largest candy factory, making candy and chocolate. Wonka holds a contest, hiding 5 Golden Tickets within the wrappers of his chocolate bars, promising their finders a tour of his factory and a lifelong supply of his creations.
In the novels, Wonka has a black goatee and "marvelously" bright eyes, a high and "flutey" voice, a face "alight of fun and laughter", and quick little jerky movements "like a squirrel". He is enthusiastic, talkative, friendly, and charming, but is sometimes insensitive and has been given to glossing self-criticism.
In the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, he is portrayed by Gene Wilder. While his personality remains generally the same as in the book, he is more melancholy here, occasionally puts on an act of being crazy and sadistic, and frequently quotes books and poems, including William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet ("Is it my soul that calls upon my name?"), John Masefield's "Sea-Fever" ("All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by"), and Ogden Nash's "Reflections on Ice-Breaking" ("Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker"), among many others. Toward the end of the film, he tests Charlie's conscience by reprimanding him and pretending to deny him any reward, but assumes an almost paternal role when Charlie proves to be honest after all. In the 2017 film Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, adapting the 1971 film, but with the addition of Hanna-Barbera characters Tom and Jerry, he is voiced by J. P. Karliak.
In the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he is portrayed by Johnny Depp. In this version, a backstory was added, which reveals his troubled upbringing: Willy Wonka's father (being a dentist) would not let him eat sweets because of the potential risk to his teeth, so the young Wonka ran away from home to travel to Switzerland and Bavaria and become a chocolatier. At the end of the film, Wonka reconciles with his father, who is revealed to have collected newspaper clippings of his son's success.
In the 2023 film Wonka, which serves as a prequel to the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, he is portrayed by Timothée Chalamet. The film tells an origin story for the character about his early days as a chocolatier in Europe after seven years of traveling around the world. A new backstory was added, which reveals his even more troubled upbringing: When he was a child, Willy Wonka and his mother were poor and she made chocolate bars on the rare occasions that she was able to, until she eventually died because of an illness. At the end of the film, after exposing the crimes of the local Chocolate Cartel (which is composed of Arthur Slugworth, Gerald Prodnose, and Felix Fickelgruber), Wonka opens the last chocolate bar his mother left him, which is revealed to contain a golden paper with a message telling him that chocolate is best when it is shared with others. He then acquires an abandoned castle and commences turning it into a chocolate factory, and the Oompa-Loompa Lofty agrees to be his taste tester.
Charlie Bucket
Charlie Bucket is the titular main character of the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and the film adaptations of the former. Dahl's widow said that Charlie was originally intended to be black. He is depicted as a kindhearted boy who lives in poverty with his mother, father, and four grandparents. In the original film, he has a newspaper route after school, his father is dead, and his mother cares for him as a solo parent. He and his family follow the progress of the hunt for the Golden Tickets in newspapers and television. In the 2005 film, Charlie's father is revealed to have lost his job at a toothpaste factory, having been made redundant after the factory purchased a robot to do the job that he had, only to be rehired as a technician at the end of the film. Unlike the first four finalists, Charlie is honest and generous. He is actually worried if the other nasty children, such as Augustus and Veruca, will actually be alive after their ordeals. This positive depiction of an honest, caring young boy contradicted how Dahl originally unintentionally negatively portrayed Oompa-Loompas as a racially insensitive caricature of imported African slaves. In the 1971 film, Charlie was portrayed by Peter Ostrum in his only film appearance. In the 2005 film, Charlie was portrayed by Freddie Highmore.
Grandpa Joe
Grandpa Joe is one of Charlie's four bed-ridden grandparents. He tells Charlie (and the reader) the story of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and the mystery of the secret workers. When Charlie finds the Golden Ticket, Grandpa Joe leaps out of bed in joy and is chosen as the one to accompany Charlie on the tour of the factory. In the sequel book, he and all members of Charlie's family ride with Charlie and Wonka in the Great Glass Elevator and assist the rescue of the Commuter Capsule from the Vermicious Knids. Grandpa Joe's age is given as "ninety-six and a half" in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, making him the eldest of Charlie's grandparents, but in the musical, it is stated he is almost ninety and a half.
The character was played by Jack Albertson in the 1971 film adaptation Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. In this film, he is often excitable, paranoid, and stubborn, and convinces Charlie to sneak away from the tour to try Fizzy Lifting Drinks. He becomes angry when Charlie is dismissed without reward and threatens to give the everlasting gobstopper to Slugworth before Charlie returns it of his own volition.
The character was played by David Kelly in the 2005 film adaptation, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Veteran actor Gregory Peck was originally selected to play the role, but he died in 2003 before filming began. This version of the character is written as more calm than the 1971 version. An original backstory to Grandpa Joe's past was added to Tim Burton's film, wherein it is said that Joe worked for Wonka until the latter fired all his workers from his factory due to constant corporate espionage by rival confectionery manufacturers. When he returns to the factory with Charlie for the tour and stated that he used to work for him, Wonka asks if he was one of the spies working for one of his rivals. Joe assures he wasn't and Wonka welcomes him back.
While Grandpa Joe is portrayed sympathetically in all versions, the release of the 2005 film saw the character become the subject of heavy internet parody characterizing him as a "lazy freeloader who spends years in bed...then springs to life the moment there’s something fun for him to do."
Other Golden Ticket winners Augustus Gloop
Augustus Gloop is an obese, greedy, 9-year-old boy, the first person to find a Golden Ticket and one of the four main antagonists of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He hails from the fictional town of Dusselheim, West Germany in the 1971 film, and Düsseldorf, Germany in the 2005 film. His mother takes great pride in his gluttonous eating and seems to enjoy the attention of the media. In the novel and both films, he is portrayed as "enormously fat". Augustus is the first to be removed from the tour: while drinking from the Chocolate Room's Chocolate River, he accidentally falls into the river and is drawn through a pipe to the factory's Fudge Room. Wonka summons an Oompa-Loompa to take Augustus' parents to the Fudge Room to look for him and is advised to take a long stick and poke around in the big chocolate-mixing barrel. In the book, he is depicted leaving the factory extremely underweight from being squeezed in the pipe.
In the 1971 film, despite eating constantly, he is not as obese as he is in the book and has decent table manners. Although he appears uninterested in Charlie and the other three finalists due to his only aspiration being that of eating, he is seen as being polite to them. When Augustus falls into the chocolate river, Charlie tries to rescue him using a giant lollipop. He is portrayed by Michael Böllner in this film. Since Böllner could not speak fluent English at the time of the film's production, the 1971 Augustus has fewer lines and less screen time.
In the 2005 film, Augustus is always shown consuming chocolate. He has a binge eating disorder and often has food smeared on his face, additionally, his obesity is far more severe than the 1971 portrayal, causing him to have a slower, lumbering walk relative to the other children. He also displays a superiority complex, such as when he offers Charlie a bite of his Wonka Bar and then retracts it, saying that Charlie should have brought some himself. As in the book, he is shown leaving the factory underweight toward the end of the story; but in this version, he is his normal size, licking his fingers to remove the adherent chocolate that he is still coated in, to which his mother begs him to stop "eating his fingers". Augustus refuses, saying that he tastes "so good". The actor Philip Wiegratz wore a fatsuit for the production.
In the book, both of Augustus's parents accompany him to the factory. Both film versions contradict this, however, and only his mother goes with him.
In the 2013 London musical, Augustus Gloop is known as "the Bavarian Beefcake" in his Alpine community. His mother and father indulge his eating habits with sweets and pieces of sausage of which they (and sometimes Augustus) butcher themselves. In his number, "More of Him to Love", Frau Gloop reveals that she had vital organs removed to retrieve Augustus from the womb. They arrive at the factory wearing traditional Eastern European clothing, with Augustus in a red, argyle sweater and green shorts. When Augustus falls into the Chocolate River, Wonka summons the diversionary pumping system to divert the flow, while Oompa-Loompas dressed in red boiler suits sing, "Auf Wiedersehen, Augustus Gloop", as they prepare the chocolate, while Augustus travels through the main industrial pipe, occasionally getting stuck in it. The 2017 Broadway rendition of the musical does not largely alter the character, though he and all the other finalists (sans Charlie) are portrayed by adults. Further, Augustus's father is confirmed to be deceased; it is implied that Augustus actually devoured him.
Veruca Salt
Veruca Salt is a greedy, demanding, spoiled brat and one of the four main antagonists of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She demands everything she wants, and she wants everything she sees. Veruca is the second person to find a Golden Ticket and the third eliminated from the factory tour.
Unlike the other winners, Veruca did not find a golden ticket herself; rather her father instructed the workers of his peanut shelling factory to unwrap thousands of Wonka bars he had purchased until they found a golden ticket.