Denise Nickerson

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Denise Nickerson (April 1, 1957 – July 10, 2019) was an American actress.

She started her career as a child actress playing bratty bubblegum-chewing Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; Allison on The Electric Company; and Amy Jennings, Nora Collins, and Amy Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows.

Early life

Nickerson was born on April 1, 1957, in New York City, to Flo, a clerical worker, and Fred Nickerson, a mail carrier. The family, along with older sister Carol and her son, moved to Miami. Nickerson, at the age of two, appeared in a television commercial for a Florida heating company. At the age of four she was discovered at a fashion show by Broadway Theatre producer Zev Buffman of drama school the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Personal life

Denise was married twice. Her first marriage was to Rick Keller in 1981; he died two years later of a brain aneurysm. Her second marriage was to Mark Willard in 1995; they had one son, Joshua Nickerson, before divorcing in 1998.

In 1976, Nickerson was hit by a car while crossing the street and was left in a full leg cast for eight months.

In June 2018, Nickerson suffered a severe stroke and was hospitalized in intensive care. She was discharged to a rehabilitation center the following month. In August, she went home to live under her family's care. In September 2018, Julie Dawn Cole and Paris Themmen from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory visited Nickerson after she was discharged from a rehabilitation center.

On July 8, 2019, Nickerson took an overdose of prescription medicines while her son and daughter-in-law were out; her son took her to a hospital in respiratory distress. While in intensive care, she developed pneumonia. She suffered a massive seizure the following day and slipped into a coma. She had a do not resuscitate order in place, and on July 10, her family removed her from life support. She died later that day from pneumonia.

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Career

In 1962, she was in a play of Peter Pan as Wendy's daughter starring Betsy Palmer at Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse, when she was five years old. Buffman selected Nickerson to go on the road with the show, first to Washington, D.C., first. The play ended when Denise was nine years old. Carol and Nickerson's parents returned to New York City and Lexington in a studio apartment when they (and Shane, Carol's son) stayed with her grandmother in Massachusetts.

Nickerson, a 13-year-old boy, was cast as the nymphet Lolita in Boston's ill-fated musical Lolita, My Love in 1971, which closed on the road before arriving in Broadway.

In the 1960s, Nickerson appeared on television shows such as The Doctors as Kate Harris, opposite Bill Bixby in an unsold television pilot named Rome Sweet Rome, as well as on The New Phil Silvers Show. Nickerson's biggest break came in 1968, when she appeared in ABC Daytime's Dark Shadows, as recurring characters Amy Jennings, Nora Collins, and Amy Collins from 1968 to 1970. She appeared in The Neon Ceiling, a 1971 television film, after leaving Dark Shadows. She appeared in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory's classic role as gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde, based on Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Nickerson appeared in The Electric Company from 1972 to 1973 as "Allison," a member of the Short Circus music group. Producers saw the potential in her fresh look and had her sing lead on several songs, including "The Sweet Sway." In a final-season episode of The Brady Bunch called "Two Petes in a Pod," she guest starred as Pamela (one of two dates Peter Brady had on one night). She auditioned for the role of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist, losing to Linda Blair. Sophie Pennington was also in 1974, alongside Teddy Eccles, in the unsold television pilot If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever, based on M. E. Kerr's book of the same name.

Liza Walton on CBS Daytime's soap opera Search for Tomorrow is Nickerson's role. She stayed with the series until the producers decided to age the character and make her one of the show's romantic heroines.

Nickerson appeared in the television series The Man Who Could Talk to Kids in 1973, opposite Peter Boyle and Scott Jacoby. Miss San Diego Shirley Tolstoy was also starring Melanie Griffith and Annette O'Toole in 1975, she appeared in the satiric, beauty-pageant inspired motion picture Smile as Miss San Diego.

In the 1978 film Zero to Sixty starring Darren McGavin and Sylvia Miles, as well as the television film Child of Glass, Nickerson appeared in the documentary film Child of Glass.

Nickerson, a professional actress, left acting after turning 21 in 1978 and found that her parents had squandered her previous savings from her television and film careers. Nickerson started nursing school but later worked as a receptionist and then as a medical assistant/accountant in a doctor's office.

Nickerson was a longtime fan of both Willy Wonka and Dark Shadows.

Nickerson appeared in the documentary Pure Imagination: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, directed by J.M. in 2001. Kenny is a student at the University of On a Saturday, the Kenny was born.

Nickerson appeared on television sporadically in later years, including an appearance on a episode of the 2000–2002 version of To Tell the Truth.

After They Were Famous, Nickerson and some of her Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory co-stars appeared on an episode of the British television documentary series After They Were Famous, also directed by J.M. Kenny is a fan of the film.

In 2011, all of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory's cast members, including Nickerson, returned to the contestants for an episode of Top Chef: Just Desserts, which challenged the contestants to create an edible world of wonder. The partial Wonka cast reunited in 2011 and again on The Today Show in 2015.

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