Mel Stuart

Director

September 2, 1928 (83 years)

† August 9, 2012

New York City, New York, USA

Biography

Mel Stuart (born Stuart Solomon; September 2, 1928 – August 9, 2012) was an American film director and producer who often worked with producer David L. Wolper, at whose production firm he worked for 17 years, before going freelance. Stuart directed the fantasy-musical Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). He has directed other features, including If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), One Is a Lonely Number (1974) and Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135 (2000). Stuart also direct…

Filmography

7.5

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

When eccentric candy man Willy Wonka promises a lifetime supply of sweets and a tour of his chocolate factory to five lucky kids, penniless Charlie Bucket seeks the golden ticket that will make him a winner.

7.3

Welcome Back, Kotter

Welcome Back, Kotter is an American television sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan and featuring a young John Travolta. Videotaped in front of a live studio audience, it originally aired on the ABC network from September 9, 1975, to June 8, 1979.

7.0

The Chisholms

The Chisholms is a CBS western miniseries starring Robert Preston, which aired from March 29, 1979, to April 19, 1979; and continued as a television series from January 19, 1980, to March 15, 1980. The 1979 miniseries showed the family moving from Virginia to Wyoming. When the TV series commenced in 1980, the pioneers were shown en route along the California Trail from Wyoming to Sacramento, California.

8.4

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies

To commemorate the first century of American filmmaking, the American Film Institute embarked on a celebration of America's greatest movies from the first 100 years of American cinema — 1896-1996.

5.9

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium

A group of travelers from the United States race through seven European countries in 18 days.

4.8

Mean Dog Blues

A victim of circumstance, country and western musician Paul Ramsey finds himself on a Southern chain gang.

6.9

Wattstax

A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.

7.3

The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal

The story of a fire in the Triangle Shirt Mfg. Co. building in New York City in 1911 that resulted in the deaths of 146 employees, mostly young women. The ensuing investigation revealed the company's almost total disregard for its workers' safety in pursuit of increased production and profits, and resulted, among other things, in the passage of new worker safety laws and the formation of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

8.0

Ruby and Oswald

The most accurate portrait ever made of the events surrounding the Kennedy assassination and the subsequent assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.

3.5

I Love My Wife

Young surgeon becomes bored with his wife and family, he has a very successful career, but even with having so much in life, he feels empty and goes through a series of brief and meaningless relations with attractive women.

5.1

One Is a Lonely Number

A young woman has difficulty understanding why her husband walks out on her. Alone for the first time, she finds life difficult to cope with and for a time lives with the hope that her husband will come back to her.

6.4

Four Days In November

1964 American documentary film about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

5.5

Sophia Loren: Her Own Story

This biopic about actress Sophia Loren covers her life from childhood through international stardom, her marriage to Carlo Ponti following a romantic fling with Cary Grant, and the birth of her first child, and is tied together with actual clips from some of her movies.

10.0

The White Lions

A college professor, his wife, and daughter go the the wilds of Africa to live, and study the rare white lions of the region.

6.8

Brenda Starr

A newspaper reporter trying to track down a hermit-like billionaire goes to the Brazilian jungle, where she finds herself in the middle of an extortion plot, voodoo and supernatural occurrences.

6.0

Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy

A profile of writer-director Billy Wilder

N/A

The Making of the President: 1964

Acclaimed producer David L. Wolper presents this landmark documentary (based on Theodore H. White's best-selling book) that analyzes Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory over Republican Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election.

6.1

Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135

Forty runners compete in the most gruelling race on earth, the Badwater. The film documents the trials and tribulations of these athletes as they run 135 miles through Death Valley in July and explores the motivations behind this seemingly masochistic contest. A celebration of the perseverance of the human will beyond the limits of the human body

6.7

Happy Anniversary 007: 25 Years of James Bond

An hour documentary on the history of Bond for the 25th anniversary of the film series.

10.0

The Unfinished Journey of Robert Kennedy

A documentary story of a man of our times- In a period when his country was tormented by conflict and violencei he perceived and embraced the struggle of his epoch - the struggle for human dignity and freedom. The only documentary that was presented as an ABC Movie of the Week.