No Dream Too Big, No Dreamer Too Small

"You couldn’t write it. You wouldn’t believe it."- Jerry Maren, recalling the news that he was cast in "The Wizard of Oz"


An actor named Meinhardt Raabe passed away of an apparent heart attack on April 9, 2010, age 94. The name (pronounced RAH’-bee) may be unrecognizable, but he will forever be remembered for a role, seven decades past, in one of Hollywood’s most beloved classics, "The Wizard of Oz." Famous for his solemn proclamation (albeit with a dubbed voice) over the remains of the Wicked Witch of the East - "As coroner, I thoroughly examined her, and she’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead!" - Raabe could not later recall exactly how much he was paid, only saying that "by today’s standards, people would say you were crazy to work for that." ("Less than Toto," fellow Munchkin Jerry Maren would say.)


Raabe was born to a family of dairy farmers in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1915. He braved years of schoolyard taunts before becoming a member of Midget City at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, where, for the first time, he met people eye to eye and realized that size was no drawback to happiness. "It was a new world," he said.

He worked summers with other little people at expositions, earning money for college, where he received a bachelor’s degree in accounting, only to be told by prospective hirers, "You don’t belong here. You belong in a carnival."

Raabe got a job as the advertising mascot "Little Oscar" for Oscar Mayer meats before hearing of a sudden demand for little people in Hollywood. He was about 3 ½ feet tall when "The Wizard of Oz" was made and would eventually grow to 4 ½ feet.

He later learned to fly and joined the Civil Air Patrol as a pilot and instructor during World War II. With a master’s degree in business administration, he married Margaret, a cigarette girl about the same height, and they were together for 50 years, until her death in a car accident in 1997.
Raabe carefully stored his coroner’s costume in a closet and kept a cherished photograph of Judy Garland, autographed, "For Meinhardt. A perfect coroner, and person, too." In 1988, he told the Associated Press, "There is nothing in the picture that dates it. There are no old vintage cars…It’s a fantasy picture that will be fantasy for generations to come."

Raabe was one of seven surviving Munchkin performers who, in November 2007, attended the long overdue unveiling of the Munchkins’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Left to right: Mickey Carroll, Clarence Swenson, Jerry Maren, Karl Slover, honorary mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant, Ruth Duccini, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe) The actors used the opportunity to speak about being referred to as "midgets."


Ruth Duccini, who portrayed a Munchkin villager, remarked, "I don’t mind being called a midget." Margaret Pellegrini, the Munchkin Sleepyhead, said, "Midget or little person is fine." On the other hand, Mickey Carroll, who played a number of Munchkins, insisted that if anyone were to call him a midget, "I’d kick ‘em in the shins!"
The History Lesson


In Norse and Germanic traditions, dwarfs figured prominently in folklore and fairy tales, often possessing magical metallurgical talents, such as Rumpelstiltskin (above), who could spin straw into gold, or the mining dwarfs (below) of "Scheewittchen" (more popularly known as Snow White).
The 12th-century Middle High German epic poem "Nibelungenlied" ("The Song of the Nibelungs") made mention of Alberich, the king of the dwarfs, who guarded a fabled treasure until his undoing by the dragon-slaying hero Siegfried. The saga served as the basis for Richard Wagner’s 19th-century opera cycle, "The Ring of the Nibelung," the plot of which revolves around a magical ring, forged by Alberich of gold he stole from the water-nymphs, the Rhinemaidens (as illustrated below by Arthur Rackham).

In 1924, Austrian-born director Fritz Lang made a pair of films based on the epic, "Siegfried" and "Kriemhild’s Revenge." The former featured fanciful depictions of Alberich and the dwarfs who guarded his treasure trove.










Ancient Egyptians, like the later Greeks, regarded dwarfs as individuals of sacred significance, related to sex and fertility, so association with such gave a person an esteemed social status. In the second millennium BCE, Pharaoh Amenemope proclaimed, "Mock not the blind nor deride the dwarf nor block the cripple’s path…"

The dwarf Egyptian god Bes (depicted above) was the protector of women and children. His female worshippers would tattoo his name on their thigh. Historically, Seneb (below left), a 4th or early 5th Dynasty dwarf, served as overseer of the palace dwarfs, as well as chief of the royal wardrobe and priest of funeral arts.


The Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament contains God’s list of physical failings which would prohibit the descendants of Aaron from officiating at the sacrificial altar. "None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God," the Almighty instructed. "For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long…or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with…an itching disease or crushed testicles."




Evidence exists of female gladiators ("gladiatrices") in ancient Rome, and it was said that one emperor, Domitian (above), who reigned from 81-96, enjoyed staging competitions between such women and dwarf gladiators. A 1st-century poet named Statius, however, noted that the women fought each other, while a separate program featured dwarfs combatting one another, most likely as boxers, in a comical contrast to the bloody duels of the gladiatrices, foreshadowing the popularity, several centuries later, of midget wrestling.



Midget professional wrestling, as it was called, peaked in the 1950s into the 1960s, and it experienced a revival in the late 1980s, courtesy of the puerile brain trust at the World Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment). The advocacy organization Little People of America have adamantly criticized the "sport" for reinforcing the stereotype that little people are nothing more than figures of escapist entertainment, objecting especially to the use of the word "midget," which they maintain is as offensive as a racial slur. A number of the performers, however, do not feel that way.


A recurring character in Shakespeare’s plays is the "fool," or jester, a comedic presence, regardless of the work’s significance as a comedy, history or tragedy, with a spontaneous wit, who not only entertains royalty and their guest, but is expected to be wryly critical of anyone at court. In Shakespeare’s time, a great number of fools were cripples or dwarfs, their physical stature enhancing their popularity and, according to beliefs at the time, bringing good luck to the court.


It is a sad historical footnote that dwarfs were often kept as amusing curiosities by nobility and found themselves exploited, traded and delivered as gifts to kings and queens. Such was the fate of Sir Jeffrey Hudson (1619 - ca. 1682), who, as a youth, standing all of 18 inches, was presented to England’s Queen consort Henrietta Maria (wife of King Charles I), springing from the crust of an oversized pie, clad in shining, miniature armor. Renowned as "Lord Minimus," he was regarded as a "rarity of nature" and one of the "wonders of the age," due to his strikingly well-proportioned size.
Hudson fought with royalists against Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War and fled with the Queen to France five years before the beheading of Charles, only to be ousted from her court after he killed a man in a duel. He was captured by Muslim Barbary pirates and spent the next 25 years of his life in slavery before being ransomed back to England.

During his captivity, Hudson had grown 45 inches, so upon his return to London in 1676, he was not so much a "wonder of the age" any longer as he was just a short man, a Roman Catholic who found himself in a turbulent atmosphere of anti-Catholic sentiment. He was incarcerated in London’s Gatehouse Prison. Two years after his release in 1680, he died, penniless, of unknown circumstances and was buried in a long forgotten grave.


In Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story "Hop-Frog," published in 1849 (illustrated above by Arthur Rackham), the title character is a dwarf who was wrested from his homeland to become the jester for a cruel king with a particular fondness for humiliating practical jokes. After the king forces Hop-Frog to get drunk on wine and strikes his female friend, a dwarf named Trippetta, the jester convinces the king and his ministers to dress as orangutans as a proposed stunt for a masquerade gala. In front of the assembled guests, Hop-Frog chains them together, hoists them overhead and, to the horror of all, sets them ablaze (illustrated below by James Ensor). Before escaping through a skylight with his beloved Trippetta, he cries, "…I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester, and this is my last jest."


The tale became a chilling vignette in director Roger Corman’s 1964 version of Poe’s "The Masque of the Red Death," starring Vincent Price and featuring Patrick Magee (best known as the vengeful, crippled writer in "A Clockwork Orange") as the sadistic noble and Skip Martin (below) as the maligned jester, here called Hop Toad.


Born Derek George Horowitz in London, Martin was frequently cast in horror pictures, including "Psycho-Circus," "Vampire Circus" and "Horror Hospital." He supplemented his sporadic screen career as a tobacconist before his untimely death in 1984 at the age of 56.


So-called freak shows, which remained a crowd favorite at circuses and carnival sideshows from the mid-1940s to the 1970s, traditionally featured exhibitions of human oddities ("freaks of nature"). Some attractions included disturbing performances designed to shock audiences, as well as deformed animals, famous hoaxes, and "science-gone-wrong" exhibits. Changes in popular culture, however, inevitably led to the fall of freak shows, as the attractions elicited sympathy more than curiosity or fear.


Freaks," directed in 1932 by Tod Browning, who made "Dracula," starring Bela Lugosi, a year earlier, depicts a traveling sideshow, a world in which the physically deformed are the trusting, decent characters, while the real freaks are the normal-sized circus performers, who plot the murder of a little person for his inheritance, only to suffer a gruesome vengeance.


Made in pre-Code Hollywood, the film’s use of real human rarities stirred public outrage, and "Freaks" was promptly yanked into obscurity, until it was re-released in 1962 at the Cannes Film Festival.


The intended victim of the murder plot was portrayed by Harry Earles (April 3, 1902-May 4, 1985). Born to Emma and Gustav Schneider in Germany, Earles was one of four dwarf siblings who performed as "The Doll Family" in circuses and sideshows across the U.S. from the 1920s until their retirement in the mid-1950s.

Before "Freaks," Harry had portrayed Tweedledee (above), the ruthless baby-impersonator in both the 1925 silent picture "The Unholy Three" (directed by Tod Browning) ) and its 1930 remake, each starring Lon Chaney Sr. Harry’s sister Daisy played his fiancee in "Freaks," while sibling Tiny had a bit part.



All four appeared as Munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz" (Harry was featured as a member of the "Lollipop Guild"). The Dolls, who eventually called themselves "The Moving Picture Midgets," remained an especially close-knit family, and their years of work in circuses and movies provided them with a comfortable retirement in Sarasota, Florida, in a house furnished with custom-built accommodations, where they resided until their deaths.

"God dang, can you imagine that?…I’m a movie star!"



In the first description of Munchkins by L. Frank Baum in the original 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (illustrated above by W.W. Denslow), Dorothy "noticed…a group of the queerest people she had ever seen. They were not as big as the grown folk she had always been used to; but neither were they very small. In fact, they seemed about as tall as Dorothy, who was a well-grown child for her age, although they were, as far as looks go, many years older."


One hundred twenty-four little people, ranging in height from 2’ 3" to 4’ 8", arrived at the MGM studio in 1938. Most of them were provided by Singer’s Midgets. Proprietor Leo Singer was a German Jew who trained his troupe as singers, dancers, acrobats and wrestlers. He preferred European performers over Americans, whom he considered too independent with a demand for too much money. One such American was Billy Curtis, who claimed Singer had a reputation for cheating his workers. "Some of those little guys didn’t have the intelligence to know the value of money," Curtis said. "Half of them couldn’t speak English. Singer fed them and clothed them. And when they didn’t work, Singer was still giving them a couple of bucks to spend. They thought that was great."

Nearly half of the little people were assembled in New York City and transported by charter bus to Hollywood. Jerry Maren, at 17, was the youngest of 60 on the bus. Having performed in vaudeville since the age of 13, he was selected as one the "three little guys who could really sing and dance," as he put it, as the Lollipop Kids.


In the 1977 book The Making of The Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz, Maren recalled, "I was the one with the candy, the one who gave the lollipop to Judy Garland. It was a fairy tale. I graduated from high school and there was a telegram from MGM to work on the picture - nearly a hundred dollars a week plus expenses. You couldn’t write it, you wouldn’t believe it."

Maren, who had never seen another little person before, said, "And all of a sudden, I was on a bus with sixty of them. My reaction to that busload…was to get just as excited as anyone else would who saw them. ‘Look how funny he walks. Gee, do I do that?’" He fondly remembered that "they took pictures of a hundred midgets entering Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and my biggest thrill was going through the gate. I thought, ‘God dang, can you imagine that? I’m a movie actor. I’m a movie star!"


"The Wizard of Oz" producer Mervyn LeRoy (above left) reportedly said that he wanted to hire only "little people who were…cute and looked perfect." Technicians who worked on the movie recalled, with a note of condescension, the Munchkins as "such cute little things," "little dolls" and "such little toys."

Instead of "midgets," they preferred "little people," and they referred to others as "big people" or, regardless of age, "grown-ups." Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow, thought that they "figured that the way they were underdeveloped, that they were freaks. That made kind of a sad world for them to live in, and yet they were brave people. They made out." Margaret Pellegrini, who played the Sleepyhead Munchkin, remembered "the feeling of specialness" on the set and warmly recalled the Christmas when Judy Garland presented the little people with boxes of candy and autographed pictures.

A Tale of Two Billys


One of the most recognizable little people in film and television, although he was not in "The Wizard of Oz," had to have been Billy Barty (October 25, 1924 - December 23, 2000). His lifelong show business career started with a costarring role as Mickey Rooney’s little brother in the late 1920s series of silent comedy shorts "Mickey McGuire" (below), RKO Radio Pictures’ rival to Hal Roach’s "Our Gang" comedies. Barty appeared with Rooney (as Puck) in Warner Bros.’ lavish 1935 production of Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," portraying the fairy Mustard-Seed.

Barty had a rare form of short-limbed dwarfism due to skeletal dysplasia. He was fond of saying, "The name of my condition is Cartilage Hair Syndrome Hypoplasia, but you can call me Billy." He became a renowned activist for the rights of others with dwarfism and started Little People of America in 1957 by inviting those of short stature to an informal get-together in Reno, Nevada. That original gathering of 21 grew into an organization with, as of 2010, more than 6800 members.

"The general public thinks all little people are in circuses or sideshows," Barty once noted. "We have doctors, nurses, just about every field covered." Continuing his personal crusade to oppose stereotypes, he founded the non-profit Billy Barty Foundation in 1975.

According to the organization’s website, "Most of us with dwarfism prefer to be described as ‘Little People.’ And please, put the emphasis on the word ‘People.’ We did not spring from the pages of a storybook or emerge from an enchanted forest. We are not magical beings…We are parents and sons and daughters…We dream, cry, laugh, shout, fall in love, and make mistakes. We are no different from you.

"Dwarfism is a condition that affects over 1.5 million people in the U.S. alone, and there are over 100 different types of dwarfism. Most Little People are born to families with no history of dwarfism. Even today, in the most open-minded and prejudice-tolerant society ever…people with dwarfism are still subjected to degrading stereotypes and attitudinal barriers. We endure everything from job discrimination and reduced social opportunities to physical abuse and open public ridicule on a daily basis."

Billy Curtis (June 27, 1909 - November 9, 1988), born Luigi Curto, stood 4’ 2" and enjoyed a 50-year career in movies and television. Initially, the young Curtis avoided freak-show jobs, opting instead for mainstream employment as a shoe store salesman.



In 1938, he starred in "The Terror of Tiny Town," the world’s only western-musical with an all-dwarf cast, several of whom were performers in the previously mentioned Singer’s Midgets (including Charles Becker, who portrayed the Mayor of Munchkinland). The film featured such gags as cowboys on Shetland ponies roping calves and swaggering into saloons underneath the swinging doors. (The director, Sam Newfield, was also responsible for the first "all-colored" western musical, 1937’s "Harlem on the Prairie.")

Curtis subsequently appeared as a Munchkin. In the book The Making of The Wizard of Oz, Charlie Schram, a makeup man at MGM, recalled, "Of all the midgets, Billy Curtis was the handsomest and had the most style. He was flashily dressed and he smoked cigars. He was quite arrogant. He looked down on the others because he had a degree of success in vaudeville."


In the cult science-fiction classic "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957), he had a memorable bit part as a circus sideshow performer. He had a starring role in "Little Cigars" (1973), a comedic twist on crime pictures with little people (including Jerry Maren) as the gangsters. The full-sized leader of the gang was portrayed by Angel Tompkins, a former Playboy magazine centerfold and a Golden Globe nominee for her role, opposite Elliott Gould, in 1970’s "I Love My…Wife."



Curtis regularly appeared as Mayor McCheese in McDonald’s commercials until his death, after which the character was retired. One of his most unusual film assignments was as a stunt double for the 6’ 7" James Arness (above) in the final scenes of "The Thing from Another World" (1951). His best known role was as Mordecai (below) in the 1973 Clint Eastwood western "High Plains Drifter."


"Me order! Me Master! Me run Bartertown!"

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1908, Angelo Rossitto stood 2’ 11" and appeared in over 70 films between 1927 and 1985. He was "discovered" by John Barrymore and made his screen debut in the 1927 silent film "The Beloved Rogue," starring Barrymore. After appearing in "Freaks," "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and, among several others, the Laurel & Hardy version of "Babes in Toyland," he moved on to roles in a number of "poverty-row" thrillers in the 1940s, often with Bela Lugosi.


Together with Billy Barty, he was one of the founding members of Little People of America. When acting jobs were few and far between, he ran a Hollywood newspaper stand. "I never worked steady," he once said. "If it wasn’t for my newsstand, I would have never made a living. I’m just a ham-and-egg actor."

He did have a regular television role as a shoeshine man/informer, "Little Moe," in the 1970s cop series "Baretta," starring Robert Blake. One of his final movie appearances, at age 77 and nearly blind, was a remarkably sympathetic performance as "Master" (below) in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985), starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner. It was his favorite role. He died, age 83, in 1991 from complications during surgery.



Passing for a Midget

French-born Herve Villechaize (April 23, 1943 - September 4, 1993) became an overnight star in his role as Tattoo, the loyal assistant to Ricardo Montalban’s Mr. Roarke, on the TV series "Fantasy Island" (1977-1984), making the weekly announcement, "Ze plane! Ze plane!" His initial break came when he was cast as Christopher Lee’s 3’ 11" henchman, Nick Nack, in the 1974 James Bond film "The Man with the Golden Gun." He was also a respected painter, and he became an activist in a movement in California in the 1970s and 1980s fighting child abuse and neglect.


As much as he was popular with television viewers, Villechaize proved to be a difficult actor on the set of "Fantasy Island," where he would habitually argue with producers and continually proposition women. Before the final season, he was fired after demanding the same salary as Montalban’s.

Health problems and career misfires led to alcohol abuse. According to a former butler, Villechaize had a nightly ritual of drinking in a darkened room and shouting obscenities at reruns of "Fantasy Island." He suffered from depression, and he would lash out in erratic, sometimes violent behavior. In 1985, he was fined and sentenced to a year’s probation for illegally carrying a loaded weapon.

In the early morning hours of September 4, 1993, Villechaize shot himself in the chest with a .38 revolver. He left a suicide note, stating that he was despondent over prolonged health problems.

Mark Evanier was a head writer on a number of children’s TV shows produced by brothers Sid and Marty Krofft (of "H.R. Pufnstuf" and "Land of the Lost" fame), of which Billy Barty was part of the stock company of performers. According to Evanier, "Years later, I wound up producing a special on which Mr. Villechaize appeared. He was a mean and troubled little man…and I mean ‘little’ in both the physical and spiritual sense. He somehow thought that because he was a TV star, he was entitled to the same treatment as Tom Selleck, and the same access to women. He drove them nuts on the set, grabbing and groping…and demanding they zip his fly." Evanier explained, "Because of his condition, Herve had no strength in his hands. He could barely grasp anything and…could not, he claimed, work his own zipper…I finally had to deputize the stage manager as ‘Associate Producer in Charge of Trouser Adjustment.’"

Evanier recalled how a TV Guide cover story on Villechaize angered Billy Barty. In the interview, Villechaize insisted on being referred to as a midget, as opposed to a dwarf or a little person. Barty was disappointed because he had been working so hard to remove the negative connotation of the word "dwarf." Someone asked Barty why he was so riled, and he replied, "It’s Herve. He’s passing for a midget."

"Death is far too ordinary. The boredom would probably kill me." - Dr. Miguelito Loveless

As an adult, Michael Dunn (October 20, 1934 - August 39, 1973) was 3’ 10" tall and weighed 78 pounds. As an actor, he refused stereotypical parts for dwarf performers and pursued roles that called for dramatic skill, not diminutive stature.


His condition was the result of a defect in cartilage production caused by a genetic mutation. Classified as skeletal dysplasia, the condition results in distorted limbs, spine and ribcage, leading to widespread osteoarthritis and constricted lung development.

An only child, Dunn displayed an impressive intellect, as well as innate musical talents, and his parents, who steadfastly supported his independence, fought authorities in their effort to shuttle him to a school for disabled children. Regardless of his painful orthopedic condition, which hindered his mobility, he remained a skilled swimmer throughout his life.

After spending less than three months in a Detroit monastery with the intention of becoming a non-ordained brother, he left to pursue a stage career in New York in 1958. There, he befriended actress Phoebe Dorin, and together, on the encouragement of Roddy McDowall, they started a popular nightclub act of songs and conversation, which led the pair being cast on the TV series "The Wild Wild West."


Dunn became best known as mad scientist Dr. Miguelito Loveless, the frequent archenemy of post-Civil War secret agents James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin). Phoebe Dorin portrayed his devoted assistant, and the villainous couple often joined voices in a charming Victorian duet (below). Dorin later recalled that Dunn saved her from drowning during the filming of one episode when her costume became entangled in underwater machinery and he plunged in to free her.


In 1964, Dunn was nominated for a Tony award for his performance as hunchbacked Cousin Lymon in "The Ballad of the Sad Café." He was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for his role in 1965’s "Ship of Fools," starring Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer and Lee Marvin.

He became a dedicated philanthropist toward children with dwarfism. He would travel to visit them at his own expense, encouraging them and offering counsel to overprotective parents. Despite his description of himself as a "both-feet jumper," his mobility and stamina deteriorated, and his respiratory insufficiency caused an overload of his heart’s right chambers. He died in his sleep, at age 38.

Dunn’s manager, John Softness, recalled that "people always wanted to know how tall he was and I said, ‘When you reach for the stars, the stars don’t know how tall you are.’ But I did know how tall he was. He was six foot-three…and could throw a football 55 yards. Because that’s what Michael thought and because I loved him I thought so, too."

He was nothing less than an iconoclast who inspired subsequent dwarf actors, among them four feet-three inch tall Zelda Rubinstein (May 28, 1933 - January 27, 2010), an outspoken activist for little people herself, best known as the eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the "Poltergeist" movies.


Youngest of three children (in her words, "the only one different in appearance"), born to Polish immigrants in Pittsburgh, she said she wasn’t comfortable with her short stature until she was an adult. In a 1992 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, she said she "had a rough childhood, (but) I became very verbally facile…I learned to meet everyone head-on."

In 2002, she said, "Little people are societally handicapped. They have about two minutes to present themselves as equals, and if they don’t take advantage of that chance, then people fall back on the common assumption that ‘less’ is less."

Rubinstein was a medical lab technician in a blood bank before she started acting in her late 40s. "I had to do something creative," she later recalled. "It was an internal feeling that I was sabotaging myself." In a 2000 interview, she said, "I had no idea what I would do next, but I knew it would involve advocacy for those people who were in danger of being disenfranchised. I wanted a platform to be visible as a person who is different, as a representative of several varieties of differences. This is the most effective way for me to carry a message saying, ‘Yes, you can.’ I took a look at these shoulders in the mirror and they’re pretty big."

She made her screen debut in "Under the Rainbow" in 1981, and "Poltergeist" (1982) was her first major film role. Producer Steven Spielberg stated he designed the part of the medium specifically for a little person. She portrayed the sheriff’s dispatcher, Ginny Weedon, in the early 1990s TV series "Picket Fences," meeting her demise by falling into a freezer. Her subsequent career consisted of a number of offbeat parts in both thrillers and comedies, and in her later years, she narrated TV’s "The Scariest Places on Earth," hosted by Linda Blair.


In 1981, she helped found the non-profit Michael Dunn Memorial Repertory Theater Company, whose tallest actor was 4’ 6". She became an early activist in the fight against AIDS/HIV, promoting safe sex and AIDS awareness, appearing in ads as a mother-figure of a gay son (above). She died, age 76, from complications of a heart attack after she was removed from life support for organ failure.



Felix Silla (above), 3’ 11" tall, was born on January 11, 1957, in a small village near Rome and trained as a circus performer. He moved to the U.S. in 1955 and toured with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a bareback rider, trapeze artist, clown and tumbler. His next stop was Hollywood, where he became a stuntman.


Best known as Cousin Itt on TV’s "The Addams Family" (above), he also portrayed the robot Twiki (with a voice supplied by Mel Blanc) on the series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."


His favorite role was as Litvak, the maniacal, miniature Hitler-wannabe in "The Black Bird," a 1975 comedic sequel to "The Maltese Falcon," starring George Segal as Bogart’s son, Sam Spade Jr. His other film credits include "Little Cigars," "Under the Rainbow," "Return of the Jedi" (as an Ewok) and "Spaceballs."


(Above) David Rappaport (November 23, 1951 - May 2, 1990) earned a degree in psychology at England’s University of Bristol while developing skills as a semi-professional drummer and as an actor in the college’s dramatical society. He tried to settle down to family life with a wife and son, but when the marriage broke down, he decided to pursue a career in acting.



His most popular role was as Randall, the leader of a gang of larcenous, time-traveling dwarfs (above) in director Terry Gilliam’s "Time Bandits" (1981). He gave a memorable performance in "The Bride" (1985) as a circus performer who befriends Frankenstein’s creature (below).



From 1986 to 1987, he starred as genius inventor Simon McKay in the CBS TV series "The Wizard." He also had the recurring role of slick attorney Hamilton Schuyler, nicknamed "Mighty Mouth," on "L.A. Law."

In 1988, Rappaport said he had endured discrimination because of his size and wanted simply to be treated like "a regular, boring, normal person." He said, "I look at boring people every day, and I say, ‘God, I wish I could be like that,’ but my lot is to be unique, special, so I have to put up with it. It’s a hard life."

Rappaport struggled with acute depression, and on May 2, 1990, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a .38 revolver.



(Above) Kenny Baker (born August 24, 1934) is a 3’ 8" British actor best known (but never seen) as the man inside the droid R2-D2 in all six "Star Wars" films. He also portrayed an Ewok in "Return of the Jedi."


In 1961, Baker was talked into joining a theatrical troupe of dwarfs. He eventually joined a circus, then learned to skate and was featured in several ice shows. He was part of the Minitones, a successful cabaret comedy act, with fellow little person Jack Purvis when "Star Wars" producer George Lucas hired him.


Jack Purvis (July 13, 1937 - November1977) played different aliens in each of the original three "Star Wars" movies and appeared in three of director Terry Gilliam’s films - "Time Bandits," "Brazil" and "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (above). Several years before his death, at the age of 60, he broke his neck in a car accident, leaving him a quadriplegic. It was because of his accident and the death of David Rappaport that Terry Gilliam dropped a planned sequel to "Time Bandits."

Baker’s other screen credits include "The Elephant Man," "Time Bandits" and "Labyrinth." In the late 1990s, he briefly tested the waters of standup comedy.

In 1999, Baker spoke out about David Rappaport’s suicide, blaming Hollywood’s indifference to serious dwarf actors. He said, "Poor David couldn’t cope with it."


(Above) Warwick Davis (February 3, 1970) is a 3’ 6" British actor who became popular playing the title characters in "Willow" and in the "Leprechaun" series of horror films (the first "Leprechaun" movie featuring the 1993 screen debut of Jennifer Aniston). He has also appeared as Professor Filius Flitwick in all the "Harry Potter" movies.


When he was 11, at 2’ 11", his grandmother heard a radio advertisement calling for people four-feet tall or shorter to be in "Return of the Jedi. He landed the role of Wicket the Ewok, reprising the part in "Caravan of Courage" and "The Battle for Endor." He played three different roles in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace." "Willow," produced by George Lucas, was written with Davis specifically in mind, giving him the first opportunity to act with his face visible.
Davis is a co-founder, along with fellow dwarf actor Peter Burroughs, of Willow Management, a talent agency specializing in representing actors under five feet tall. In 2004, the agency began representing actors over seven-feet tall who had also suffered from being confined to stereotypical roles.

Angelo Muscat (September 24, 1930 - October 10, 1977) became a familiar presence on 1960s television as the silent butler in 14 of the 17 episodes of the British cult series "The Prisoner," starring Patrick McGoohan. Mute in real lilfe, the 4’ 3" Muscat, who was born in Malta, was a renowned craftsman of handmade bird cages.


He also appeared in The Beatles’ "Magical Mystery Tour" and played an Oompa-Loompa in 1971’s "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." Each year, on the anniversary of his passing, a small group of fans dubbed FOAM (Friends of Angelo Muscat) celebrate his brief but extraordinary life.

Speaking of cult status, Michael J. Anderson (born on Halloween evening, 1953) made his mark as the nightmarish backwards-talking "Man from Another Planet" in David Lynch’s landmark TV series "Twin Peaks." He is also recognizable from his role as Samson Leonhart on HBO’s "Carnivale."


Because of a genetic anomaly, the 3’ 7" Anderson literally grew up in a wheelchair and was unable to walk on his own until he was in his twenties. Before becoming an actor, he worked for NASA as a computer troubleshooter in support of space shuttle flights.

Tony Cox (born March 31, 1958), who costarred with Billy Bob Thornton (below) in "Bad Santa" (2003) as the three-foot-six-inch brains of the safe-cracking team, decided to become an actor after watching Billy Barty. He had a brief role in "Under the Rainbow" and played an Ewok in "Return of the Jedi," as well as in the Ewok TV movies "Caravan of Courage" and "The Battle for Endor." He also appeared in "Spaceballs," "Beetlejuice," "Willow," "Date Movie," "Epic Movie" and "Disaster Movie."


An avid drummer, Cox also plays basketball with a team called the Hollywood Shorties. He is an accomplished table tennis player and is active in martial arts. A self-professed practicing pagan (whatever that entails), he owns a 350-acre ranch in Sedona, Arizona. Despite his claim to be a vegetarian, he admitted to occasionally dining on the beef from his cows, saying, "I see it as a tribute that I think they would want."

Born June 11, 1969, Peter Dinklage enjoyed a breakthrough role in the acclaimed 2003 comedy-drama "The Station Agent," playing an antisocial man obsessed with trains who inherits an abandoned railroad depot. His standout performance garnered Actors Guild and Independent Spirit awards nominations. He also acted in "Elf," "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" and in both the 2007 and 2010 versions of "Death at a Funeral."

Speaking about his 4’ 5" stature, Dinklage remarked, "When I was younger, definitely, I let it get to me. As an adolescent, I was bitter and angry and I definitely put up these walls. But the older you get, you realize that you just have to have a sense of humor. You just know that it’s not your problem. It’s theirs."

An actor sometimes confused with Peter Dinklage is 4’ 1" Jordan Prentice (born January 30, 1973), probably best known for his role as Rock, the leader of a dwarf fraternity in the direct-to-DVD "American Pie Presents" comedies "The Naked Mile" and "Beta House."


Prentice delivered a memorably dramatic performance (above) in the dark comedy "In Bruges" (2008), starring Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes and Brendan Gleeson.

Nicknamed "The Stunt Runt," 4’ 1" Martin Klebba (born June 23, 1969) has been a stunt performer in 39 films. As an actor, he portrayed Marty, a member of Captain Jack Sparrow’s crew in the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films. (Klebba is pictured below with actress Meredith Eaton.)


He appeared several times as janitor Randall Winston in the TV series "Scrubs." He starred as detective Hank Dingo in Comedy Central’s made-for-TV movie "Knee High P.I." and has been featured on the reality series "Little People, Big World" with his good friend Matthew Roloff. Roloff joined Klebba in creating the non-profit organization CoDA (Coalition of Dwarf Advocates) to help dwarfs with adoption and other issues they encounter.

He was a member of the Los Angeles Breakers, a professional basketball and soccer team made up of little people. With Zack Roloff, Matthew Roloff’s son, Klebba also created The Statesmen, a similar team of all-dwarf basketball and soccer players. Klebba is the world’s fastest little person, a record he has held since 1994, running the 100M. in 13.84 seconds, the 40 in 6.0 flat. An occasional guest on Howard Stern’s morning radio show, he once wrestled a Playboy Playmate and won.


(Above) Four-feet tall Meredith Eaton (born August 26, 1974) refers to herself as a "short-stature actress." She has a dual career as a mental health therapist and an actress, but she maintains that acting is her priority. She portrayed attorney Emily Resnick on the CBS TV series "Family Law," becoming the first female little person in a regular role on a prime time series, and had a recurring role as Bethany Horowitz, a love interest to William Shatner’s character Denny Crane on ABC TV’s "Boston Legal."

Best known for playing Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" movies, Verne Troyer, at 2’ 8", is one of the shortest men in the world. His condition, Cartilage Hair Syndrome Hypoplasia, is the same form of dwarfism that affected Billy Barty.


His first break in films was as the stunt double for a nine-month-old infant in the John Hughes-scripted comedy "Baby’s Day Out" (1994). He subsequently portrayed animals and doubled for other small children.

On October 5, 2010, Troyer spoke at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant. "I’m still pursuing my dreams," he said. "I still want to do so much more here…I think as long as you put your mind to it, you can do anything you want."

His main message was that little people are no different from average-sized people, except for their stature. "Everyday life is a challenge," he noted. "A challenge is walking in a crowd. A challenge is trying to turn on a light switch. A challenge is anything a normal person doesn’t think twice about, I have to think three times about." He concluded, "As long as I make you happy, I am overjoyed."


Born May 16, 1973, in Pisa, Italy, to a Spanish-born father, Jason "Wee-Man" Acuña (above) became a professional skateboarder. His job as a subscription manager for a skateboarding magazine led to his unforgettable appearances on MTV’s "Jackass" and in the "Jackass" movies, including the recent "Jackass 3D." The 4’ 1/2" Acuña owns a Chronic Tacos restaurant (dubbed the "Mexican Subway") in Redondo Beach, California, appropriately known as Wee-Man’s Chronic Tacos.



Brad Williams (above), who was a regular on Carlos Mencia’s Comedy Central series "Mind of Mencia," does not want people to call him Wee-Man. He dropped out of the University of Southern California to pursue acting. His comedy career began at open-microphone nights in coffeehouses.

He was attending a live standup performance by Carlos Mencia when the comedian started making jokes about little people. The people seated near Williams were suddenly silent, but that didn’t stop Mencia from inviting him onstage, where Williams cracked enough jokes to impress Mencia that he was invited to be Mencia’s opening act on tour. Williams has been the opener for Mencia ever since.

Growing up, Williams endured stares and taunts from classmates and passersby. According to his biography on MySpace, "Instead of crying about it, Brad turned to humor. He discovered that by making jokes about his condition, he could make other people comfortable and get laughs in the process."

Under the Rainbow

In the book The Making of The Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz, producer Mervyn LeRoy recalled, "We had a hell of a time with those little guys. They got into sex orgies at the hotel. We had to have police on every floor." According to co-screenwriter Noel Langley, "They raided the lot. The showgirls had to be escorted in bunches by armed guards." Years later, when her memory may have been clouded by her own addiction to pills and booze, Judy Garland said, "They were little drunks. They got smashed every night, and the police had to pick them up in butterfly nets." Supposedly, the previously mentioned Billy Curtis made a number of passes at Garland, prompting her to respond, "Mother wouldn’t approve."

Several Munchkin performers, no doubt, did get drunk during their nine-week stay in the Culver City Hotel. Author Marmetz noted, "Culver City was full of bars, and the bars were full of big people who bought the little people drinks."

The facts are that the rumors over the years about the little people indulging in drunken orgies have been completely disproved. At worst, they threatened to go on strike after hearing stories that they would not be paid.


In Time magazine’s review of the comedy "Under the Rainbow," the critic wrote, "In 1939 MGM spent $1.2 million to make ‘The Wizard of Oz’; in 1981 Orion Pictures has devoted $17 million to a modern farce about the hundreds of (little people) who went to Hollywood to play the Oz Munchkins, and by their lewd shenanigans cut the town down to size. ‘Rainbow’s’ plot is serviceably convoluted, involving a secret service agent (Chevy Chase), a paranoid…duke and his Sicilian assassin-in-waiting, a pair of Axis spies, 25 Japanese camera buffs, four dead dogs and 150 little people. Make that 151: Carrie Fisher plays their den mother."

The cost of the movie actually neared $20 million (the producers utilized the real, disused Culver City Hotel), and despite the return of a disappointing $3 million in the domestic box office, it has recently achieved something of a cult status for several adoring fans. One reviewer, who was not amused, noted that "the film ends up pandering to a caricature that is insulting - all of the little people in the film seem to have no more of a mental age of children that have been left to run riot in a playground without adult supervision." There are insulting jokes towards women, Italians, Japanese, Germans, blacks "and sheep molesters," but oddly, no jokes about homosexuals.

Carrie Fisher (above, with costar Chevy Chase) once admitted that this was one of the worst movies she ever starred in. The cast of little people included Jerry Maren, one of the original Lollipop Guild, who later regretted appearing in this film because it was in such poor taste, stating that nothing remotely like this happened during the original production.

Billy Barty, camping it up with an outrageous accent as a German spy, becomes fodder for the very sort of stereotypical humor he was striving to make unacceptable. The same could be said of the actor portraying a Japanese agent, Mako, who earned an Oscar nomination for his breakthrough role as an engine room "coolie" in "The Sand Pebbles," starring Steve McQueen, and tirelessly crusaded against such stereotypical casting as "laundry man, gardener, martial artist, villain." But to be fair, the jokes spare no one, and they are fired in such a deliriously scattershot fashion that no one really has the time to be offended.

Perhaps it was an effort to recreate the bombastic frenzy of Steven Spielberg’s noisy period comedy "1941." Director Steve Rash, who made the acclaimed, albeit fictionalized, 1978 biographical film "The Buddy Holly Story," seemed to be rewiring the 1940s screwball comedy, featuring a fast-paced series of mistaken identities, confusing encounters and other mix-ups.


If there is a heart to be found in "Under the Rainbow," it is the earnest performance by diminutive Cork Hubbert (above) as Rollo Sweet, a wide-eyed Hollywood hopeful from Depression-stricken Kansas. When he proclaims his personal motto, "No dream too big, no dreamer too small!" you have no choice but to believe him. Hubbert also portrayed the goblin Brown Tom in Ridley Scott’s "Legend," starring Tom Cruise, and costarred in the 1987-1988 series "The Charmings," a sitcom that transplanted the Snow White tale to suburban California. He played Cousin Lymon in the 1991 film version of "The Ballad of the Sad Café," starring Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine and Rod Steiger. Sadly, Hubbert died from complications from diabetes on September 28, 2003, age 51.

Epilogue



Since the November 2007 occasion when seven surviving Munchkin performers from "The Wizard of Oz" attended the unveiling of their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, their number has dwindled to four. Besides the passing of Meinhardt Raabe (far right) mentioned at the onset, Clarence Swenson (costumed in his role as a Munchkin soldier, far left)
died February 25, 2009 and Mickey Carroll (third from the left, behind the lollipop) passed away May 7, 2009.