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Billy Curtis

 
Actor: Billy Curtis
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jun 27, 1909 in Springfield, Massachusetts
  • Died: Nov 09, 1988 in Dayton, Nevada
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '40s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Musical
  • Career Highlights: The Thing, Gilligan's Island: Lovey's Secret Admirer
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Thing (1951)

Biography

Born to normal-sized parents, American midget actor Billy Curtis avoided the usual onus of freak-show employment as a youth, opting for a mainstream job as a shoe clerk. Encouraged by stock company actress Shirley Booth (later the star of the TV sitcom Hazel) to take a little person role in a stage production, Curtis soon became a professional actor, with numerous Broadway musical productions to his credit. Curtis' big movie season was 1938-39: he was cast as the Mayor of the Munchkin City in The Wizard of Oz (albeit with voice dubbed by Pinto Colvig) and as the cowboy hero of the all-midget western Terror of Tiny Town (1938). This last epic was one of the few instances that Curtis was cast as a good guy; many of his screen characters were ill-tempered and pugnacious, willing to bite a kneecap if unable to punch out an opponent. Seldom accepting a role which demeaned or patronized little people, Curtis played an obnoxious vaudeville performer compelled to sit on Gary Cooper's lap in Meet John Doe (1941), a suspicious circus star willing to turn Robert Cummings over to the cops in Saboteur (1942), and one of the many fair-weather friends of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" in the 1957 film of the same name. Billy Curtis' career thrived into the 1970s, notably with solid parts in the Clint Eastwood western High Plains Drifter (1973) and the crime-caper meller Little Cigars (1973), in which he had second billing as a diminutive criminal mastermind. Billy Curtis retired in the 1980s, except for the occasional interview or Wizard of Oz cast reunion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Billy Curtis

Billy in 1959
Born Luigi Curto
June 27, 1909
 United States Springfield, Massachusetts,
Died November 9, 1988 (age 79)
Dayton, Nevada
Other name(s) Little Billy , The Singer Midgets
Years active 1938-1988
Spouse(s) Joann Curtis (1948 - 1988) 2 children
[none Official website]

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 9 November 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, and 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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