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Billy Curtis
Acting
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…
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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.
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BODY OF WORK
Billy Curtis's Filmography
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Father Guido Sarducci's Vatican Inquirer: The Pope's Tour
as Monsignor Duffy
Head Office
as Reverend Lynch
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
as Elf #2
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
as Barnaby
Eating Raoul
as Little Person
Loose Shoes
as Menchkin
The Wild McCullochs
as Charlie P.
White House Madness
as Secret Service Man
Little Cigars
as Slick Bender
High Plains Drifter
as Mordecai
Evil Roy Slade
as Toy Cowboy (uncredited)
Aphrodisiac!: The Sexual Secret of Marijuana
as Man on the Street Interviewee
Norwood
as Edmund B. Ratner
Hello, Dolly!
as Little Person (uncredited)
The Comic
as Lifeguard in Film (uncredited)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
as Clown (uncredited)
Planet of the Apes
as Child Ape (uncredited)
Out of Sight
as The Man From F.L.U.S.H.
Bob Hope Christmas Show
as Self
Two on a Guillotine
as Big Mike (uncredited)
Robin and the 7 Hoods
as Newsboy (uncredited)
Backstage Party
as Self
Man of a Thousand Faces
as Harry Earles (uncredited)
The Incredible Shrinking Man
as Midget
Friendly Persuasion
as Midget at County Fair (uncredited)
Jungle Moon Men
as Damu
Princess of the Nile
as Tut (uncredited)
Limelight
as Midget in Agent's Office (uncredited)
Superman and the Mole Men
as Mole-Man (uncredited)
Pygmy Island
as Makuba
Homicide for Three
as Circus Performer
April Showers
as Capt. Rudolph L. Nemo
Buck Privates Come Home
The Hard Way
as Vaudeville Midget (Uncredited)
Lucky Legs
as Newsboy
Saboteur
as Midget - Circus Troupe
Don't Lie
as Melinda, the chimp
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!
as Midget
Hellzapoppin'
as Bodyguard (uncredited)
Ice-Capades
as George
Emergency Landing
as Judge
Maisie Was a Lady
as Midget (Uncredited)
The Wizard of Oz
as Munchkin (uncredited)
Three Texas Steers
as Hercules - the Midget
The Terror of Tiny Town
as The Hero (Buck Lawson)