Billy Curtis

Birthday: 1909-06-27
Deathday: 1988-11-09
Birthplace: Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

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.

Credits

Year Title Character
1986-10-18 Father Guido Sarducci's Vatican Inquirer: The Pope's Tour Monsignor Duffy
1985-06-06 Head Office Reverend Lynch
1984-07-16 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Barnaby
1982-03-24 Eating Raoul Little Person
1978-09-01 Loose Shoes Menchkin
1975-05-21 The Wild McCullochs Charlie P.
1975-01-01 White House Madness Secret Service Man
1973-06-22 Little Cigars Slick Bender
1973-04-19 High Plains Drifter Mordecai
1972-02-18 Evil Roy Slade Toy Cowboy (uncredited)
1971-11-05 Aphrodisiac: The Love Secret Man on the Street Interviewee
1970-11-24 Norwood Edmund B. Ratner
1969-12-12 Hello, Dolly! Little Person (uncredited)
1968-02-07 Planet of the Apes Child Ape (uncredited)
1966-05-12 Out of Sight The Man From F.L.U.S.H.
1964-06-24 Robin and the 7 Hoods Newsboy
1958-01-01 The Adventures of Super Pup Super Pup / Bark Bent
1957-08-15 Man of a Thousand Faces Harry Earles (uncredited)
1957-02-22 The Incredible Shrinking Man Midget
1956-11-25 Friendly Persuasion Midget at County Fair (uncredited)
1955-04-08 Jungle Moon Men Damu
1954-07-01 Princess of the Nile Tut (uncredited)
1952-10-23 Limelight Midget in Agent's Office (uncredited)
1951-11-23 Superman and the Mole-Men Mole-Man (uncredited)
1950-11-22 Pygmy Island Makuba
1948-12-08 Homicide for Three Circus Performer
1948-03-27 April Showers Capt. Rudolph L. Nemo
1947-04-04 Buck Privates Come Home
1943-01-13 The Hard Way Vaudeville Midget (Uncredited)
1942-10-01 Lucky Legs Newsboy
1942-04-24 Saboteur Midget - Circus Troupe
1942-04-04 Don't Lie Melinda, the chimp
1942-04-02 Tramp, Tramp, Tramp! Midget
1941-12-25 Hellzapoppin' Bodyguard (uncredited)
1941-08-19 Ice-Capades George
1941-03-07 Emergency Landing Judge
1941-01-10 Maisie Was a Lady Midget (Uncredited)
1939-08-15 The Wizard of Oz Munchkin (uncredited)
1939-05-12 Three Texas Steers Hercules - the Midget
1938-12-01 The Terror of Tiny Town The Hero (Buck Lawson)