LORELAI: It’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
CASHIER: Oh, that’s nice. Isn’t that the one with Gene Hackman?
Gene Hackman (born Eugene Hackman in 1930) is a retired actor. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he won Best Actor for The French Connection (1971), and Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven (1992). Hackman became a writer in 1999, and has written five novels.
He tended to do tough guy roles in action and crime films, so that the idea of him playing the whimsically flamboyant Willy Wonka is slightly ludicrous.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 