While Johnny Depp and Timothée Chalamet tried with varying degrees of success, neither actor was able to step out from the shadow of the late, great Gene Wilder when playing Willy Wonka.

From Gene Wilder to Timothée Chalamet, take a look back at all of the actors who played the iconic character Alexandra Schonfeld is a features writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE ...

In 1971, Gene Wilder took on the role of Willy Wonka and Johnny Depp staged the beloved character in 2005. More recently, in 2023, Timothée Chalamet took on the leading role.

Over the weekend, it was announced that Gene Wilder – the twinkle-eyed, softly-spoken star of films including Willy Wonka, Blazing Saddles and The Producers – had passed away aged 83.

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