This Former Willy Wonka Child Star Was a Contestant on Jeopardy! and Viewers Lost Their Minds

By Isabel Jones

Mar 15, 2018 @ 8:30 am

Jeopardy! viewers got the chance to put their sleuthing skills to the test on Tuesday when they connected 58-year-old contestant Paris Themmen to the classic film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

As viewers started to guess, Themmen wasn't just “an entrepreneur and avid backpacker” but a famous one.

Twitter users were able to uncover Themmen’s contribution to ‘70s pop culture: He was Mike Teavee in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!

Need a refresher? Here's the Willy Wonka star then and now.

Steve Granitz/Getty Images

The TV-obsessed kid finally landed a national broadcast!

Of course, the social media reactions were almost better than the reveal itself.

Mike TeeVee is... on TV! I knew this guy looked familiar. #WillyWonka #Jeopardy 😁👍🍫🍫🍭🍭 pic.twitter.com/65ja2fyqSB
— mjs (@leapinglizrds) March 14, 2018

Also, @ParisThemmen why talk about backpacking? Why wouldn't you mention that when you were 11, you got invited to a chocolate factory in Germany and got split up in a million pieces then shrunk down to the size of a chocolate bar. Total missed opportunity if you ask me.
— Wildbill (@wildbill77) March 13, 2018

The guy who played Mike Teevee in the 1971 movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" was on "Jeopardy!" Tuesday. He never mentioned that he was a child actor, but the Internet figured it out. He came in second! pic.twitter.com/KKJ5PVwNbV
— Woodman Show (@WoodmanStudio) March 15, 2018

Jeopardy

Themmen has kept a low profile since his Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory days. His acting career mostly petered out after Willy Wonka—though he did play an uncredited “Fawning Fan” in a 2000 episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

He’s been a crew member for various projects, but today he’s best known for playing himself. In addition to his Jeopardy! stint (he came in second), Themmon has been a guest judge on Cake Wars, appeared on Top Chef: Just Desserts, and provided interviews for various documentaries about child stardom and Willy Wonka.