What does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have to do with vaccines?
The connection is Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Or more specifically, it is Roald Dahl’s seven-year-old daughter Olivia, who died of measles in 1962, the year before the development of the first measles vaccine.
The Death of Olivia Dahl with Measles
In 1986, Dahl wrote that:
“…there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.
It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness. Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk.”
His book, The BFG, now a major motion picture, was dedicated to her memory.
In recommending that parents vaccinate their kids, Dahl hopes “that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children.”
And grief that parents feel when they lose a child…
“In 1961, Neal, the Oscar-winning actress (for 1963’s Hud), her husband, writer Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and their three children moved to the tranquil town of Great Missenden, England, after their son Theo was almost killed by a Manhattan taxi cab. A year later, 7-year-old Olivia, the eldest, contracted measles. Inoculation was then rare in England, and Olivia had never received measles vaccine. Less than a week after coming down with the virus, she developed measles encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. On Nov. 17, 1962, she fell into a coma and died.
The phone rang. It was the doctor. He said, “Mrs. Dahl, Olivia’s dead. Did you hear me? I said Olivia is dead.” I said, yes, thank you. I couldn’t believe how cold he was. Roald came back from the hospital and he cried. Oh, he cried. He had seen her dead. I unfortunately never did. My sisters-in-law talked me out of it. I wish they hadn’t. I stayed up that first night just looking out the window. Your love is dead, and the sun still comes up. It’s just so sad.”
Patricia Neal on Dealing with Olivia’s Death
Get vaccinated!
More on The Death of Olivia Dahl
- When Measles is Allowed to Run Its Usual Course, Kids Can Die
- Parents Who Regret Not Vaccinating Their Kids
- Benjamin Franklin Regretted Letting His Son Die of Smallpox
- Roald Dahl on Olivia, writing in 1986
- Dealing with Olivia’s Death
- “MEASLES: A Dangerous Illness”
- The saddest story Roald Dahl ever wrote — about his daughter’s death from measles — is worth reading today
Last Updated on February 18, 2026