Denise Nickerson (1957-2019), or, as some clever soul might contract it, “D’ickerson”, is surely best known as the child actress who played Violet Beauregarde, the obnoxious gum-chewing child who turns into a blueberry and then will have to be squeezed in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (there are no other versions).
Nickerson had been a professional actor since the age of two, and remained in the biz nearly 20 years. She worked in theatre, television, and film. Theatre work included a 1962 production of Peter Pan starring Betsy Palmer at the Coconut Grove Playhouse; the Broadway premiere of Sherry! (a 1967 musical comedy version of The Man Who Came to Dinner); a 1969 Broadway revival of Our Town with Henry Fonda, Ed Begley, Margaret Hamilton, John Fiedler, Mildred Natwick, and John Randolph; and Lolita, My Love, a 1971 musical version of Lolita that closed out of town in Boston and in which Nickerson played the title role.
On television, she was a regular on Dark Shadows (1968-70) and The Electric Company (1972-73), and was in a memorable episode of The Brady Bunch (as one of Peter’s two dates), as well episodes of shows like Flipper and The Wonderful World of Disney. She was also in several made-for-tv films, including The Neon Ceiling (1971) with Gig Young and Lee Grant; The Man Who Could Talk to Kids (1973) with Peter Boyle; and The Dark Side of Innocence (1976) with Joanna Pettet, Anne Archer, John Anderson, and Kim Hunter, as well as a couple of unsold pilots.
As for movies that played in a cinema, she was in three: Willy Wonka, Michael Ritchie’s beauty pageant satire Smile (1975, above) with Bruce Dern, Barbara Feldon, Melanie Griffith and Annette O’Toole; and Zero to Sixty (1978) with Darren McGavin, Sylvia Miles, Joan Collins, Dick Martin, The Hudson Brothers, Vito Scotti, Lorraine Gary (from Jaws), David Huddleston, Gordon MacRae, and Lionel Waggoner. It was the last theatrical film of Don Weis, whose previous movies included The Gene Krupa Story (1959), Critic’s Choice (1963) with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). Nickerson was also one of the many girls who auditioned unsuccessfully for the role of Reagan in The Exorcist (1973).
Nickerson quit the biz pretty abruptly upon attaining majority, which tells me pretty plainly that she didn’t like it, and couldn’t wait to be done with it. She worked at a variety of office jobs over the next 40 or so years. In later years she would appear at Willy Wonka and Dark Shadows reunions. Photos of her from these events are nearly unrecognizable as the round-faced healthy looking kid she’d been in her performing days.
In 2018, at the age of 60, Nickerson suffered a massive stroke. She attempted suicide about a year later by taking pills; complications arising from her weakened condition killed her at age 62.