Sweet Memories

Willy Wonka: Where Are They Now?

1 MICHAEL BOLLNER

TAX ACCOUNTANT

The chocolate river the gluttonous Gloop fell into “wasn’t even chocolate but just dyed water, and it was cold!” says Bollner, 46. who’s divorced and lives in his native Munich, where Wonka was shot. At 5’8″ and 220 lbs., “I’m still not skinny,” he says, laughing. “I love to eat anything with a lot of sugar.”

2 DENISE NICKERSON

PURCHASING AGENT

For the scene in which Violet swells into a blueberry, she was fitted into a giant foam ball and caked in blue makeup. “The next day at school the kids start snickering,” says Nickerson, 48, ft who’s divorced and lives in Denver with her son. “The makeup had resurfaced through my pores.”

3 JULIE DAWN COLE

ACTRESS-FITNESS TRAINER

She and Nickerson shared a crush on Ostrum. Before the trippy boat scene, “He’d been flirting with Denise, so I said something cutting,” says Cole, 47, a divorced mom of two in Surrey, England. “On the boat, Peter’s looking at me all sad. That wasn’t acting-that was us.”

4 PARIS THEMMEN

FINANCIAL CONSULTANT

“We all had our grueling shots,” says Themmen, 46, a single LA. resident. When his character shrinks, “they had me dangling in a harness from fingers that are supposed to be my mother’s, and those harnesses are not comfortable.” He says he still gets recognized. “I look fairly ‘similar. Except I’m a lot balder now.”

5 PETER OSTRUM

VETERINARIAN

“I had fun making the movie,” Ostrum, 47, told People in 1996, “but I wasn’t convinced acting was what wanted to do.” Ostrum, who lives near Glenfield, N.Y., with his wife, Loretta, and their two kids, rarely talks about Wonka now but, says Loretta, “he still gets fan mail.”