Veruca Salt

This is a list of characters in the 1964 Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, his 1972 sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and the former's film adaptations, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017), and Wonka (2023). Listings include actors who have played the characters in various media.

In the novels and films, Willy Wonka is the eccentric owner of the world's largest candy factory, making candy and chocolate. Wonka holds a contest, hiding 5 Golden Tickets within the wrappers of his chocolate bars, promising their finders a tour of his factory and a lifelong supply of his creations.

In the novels, Wonka has a black goatee and "marvelously" bright eyes, a high and "flutey" voice, a face "alight of fun and laughter", and quick little jerky movements "like a squirrel". He is enthusiastic, talkative, friendly and charming, but is sometimes insensitive and has been given to glossing self-criticism.

In the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, he is portrayed by Gene Wilder. While his personality remains generally the same as in the original but sometimes sinister and a mad man, he is more melancholy here, and frequently quotes books and poems, including William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet ("Is it my soul that calls upon my name?") or John Masefield's "Sea-Fever" ("All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by"), and the famous "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker" from "Reflections on Ice-Breaking" by Ogden Nash, among many others. Toward the end of the film, he tests Charlie's conscience by reprimanding him and pretending to deny him any reward, but assumes an almost paternal role when Charlie proves to be honest after all. In the 2017 film Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, adapting the 1971 film but with the addition of Tom and Jerry, he is voiced by J. P. Karliak.