The prolific filmmaker got his start in the early 1960s, directing and producing TV documentaries like The Rafer Johnson Story and Sophia: A Self-Portrait, about the Italian actress Sophia Loren. Stuart was nominated for an Oscar in 1965 for his seminal documentary Four Days in November, about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Some of his other notable documentaries include three editions of The Making of a President, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and the groundbreaking Wattsax, about the Los Angeles music festival that commemorated the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. During this time Stuart directed what was just his second feature film, the 1971 musical fantasy Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder.