Willy Wonka is a fictional character in Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, its sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and the film adaptations of these books that followed. The book and the film adaptations both vividly depict an odd Wonka, a phoenix-like man arising from his creative and strange genius. He bewilders the other characters with his antics, but Charlie enjoys Wonka's behaviour. He was most famously depicted by Gene Wilder whose depiction of the character became a widespread classic internet meme.