Billy Curtis

Biography

Billy Curtis (June 27, 1909 - November 9, 1988) was an American film and television actor. He was a dwarf who had a 50-year career in a variety of roles. He was born on 27 June 1909 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and died November 9, 1988 in Dayton, Nevada, of a heart attack. According to the IMDb site, his birth name was Luigi Curto, and his height was 4 feet 2 inches (1.27 m). The bulk of his work was in the western and science fiction genres. One of his early jobs was as one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. He also appeared in Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. Most notably, Curtis worked in westerns, including the Clint Eastwood feature, High Plains Drifter in which he featured as Mordecai, a friendly dwarf sympathetic to Eastwood, he also appeared in the 1938 Musical/Western The Terror of Tiny Town. This film is, as far as is known, the world's only Western with an all-dwarf cast. Many of the actors in Tinytown were part of a performing troupe called Singer's Midgets, who also played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939. He also had a starring role in American International Pictures' 1973 release, Little Cigars, about a gang of "midgets" on a crime spree.

Most Known For

Star Trek

as Small, copper skinned ambassador (uncredited)

Bewitched

as Jack O'Lantern

Batman

as Midget

The Twilight Zone

as Creature (segment "Personal Demons")

Get Smart

as El Lobo-Ito

Get Smart

as Tiny Allen (uncredited)

Knots Landing

as Billy Curtis

The Beverly Hillbillies

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

as General Yoomak

77 Sunset Strip

Gunsmoke

as Arizona

Laverne & Shirley

The Monkees

as Midget

The Wizard of Oz

as Munchkin (uncredited)

Planet of the Apes

as Child Ape (uncredited)

Here's Lucy

as Herman

Faerie Tale Theatre

as Barnaby

Adventures of Superman

Adventures of Superman

as Mole-Man #1 (uncredited)

Adventures in Paradise

as Captain Borcher