By 1980, Stuart was an independent producer and director whose credits include portraits for PBS' "American Masters" on artist Man Ray and the director Billy Wilder. He was executive producer of the 1980s ABC series "Ripley's Believe It or Not," whose host was Jack Palance.

Airing on PBS in 2005, "The Hobart Shakespeareans" was Stuart's profile of a teacher in inner-city Los Angeles whose fifth-grade class each year performed a play by William Shakespeare.

He produced or directed various dramas including "The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal," "Ruby and Oswald" and the 1981 TV film "Bill," starring Mickey Rooney and Dennis Quaid, which won a Golden Globe and a Peabody award.

The 1971 musical fantasy "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," starring Gene Wilder, was Stuart's response to a young reader of the Roald Dahl children's classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." That fan was Stuart's daughter Madeline, who asked her dad to make a movie of the book she loved.