‘Willy Wonka’ Star Denise Nickerson Dies At 62 After Massive Stroke

Denise Nickerson has died at age 62, one year after suffering a massive stroke.

RadarOnline.com has learned the Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory child star died surrounded by her family on July 10 at 10:30 p.m. in a Colorado hospital.

According to reports, Denise got into her medicine cabinet this Monday and took a collection of pills.

Her family soon found her and rushed her to the emergency room, where she was additionally diagnosed with pneumonia. 

On Tuesday, Denise suffered a seizure that forced doctors to put her on life support. Her health declined over the course of the day, and this Wednesday, her family decided to let her go.

“They just took off all the equipment,” her son, Josh Nickerson, and his pregnant wife, Jasmine, shared on Facebook. “None of it was helping, but making her only more uncomfortable. We’re telling her it’s okay to let go.”

Jasmine added that Josh was “not okay at all,” especially after realizing that his mother would never get to meet his daughter, who is set to be born in about one month. 

In her final years, Denise — who quit acting in 1978 and worked in a doctor’s office — was being cared for by her son Josh and his wife.

“She has been sick for a couple weeks with pneumonia and was on antibiotics. The antibiotics caused her to have irregular heartbeats. She had a lot of health problems. She was on several medications and that combination just shut down her body. She had heart rate spikes of dangerous levels,” Josh told RadarOnline.com in 2018.

His wife explained that she’d have to quit her job to take care of the former actress, since she couldn’t function on her own. 

“She’s able to do some light movement but still, her right side is immobile. We’re taking this extremely hard and want her to get better but right now, it’s hard. Her stroke was really massive,” said Josh. 

In the months that followed, Denise learned how to walk and talk again, but she was never the same.