Billy Curtis

Billy Curtis
Born	Luigi Curto June 27, 1909 Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	November 9, 1988 (aged 79) Dayton, Nevada, U.S.
Other names	Little Billy, The Singer Midgets
Years active	1938–1988
Height	4 ft 2 in (1.27 m)
Spouse(s)	Joann Curtis (m.1948–1988; his death)
Children	Tom Curtis Judy Curtis

Billy Curtis, born Luigi Curto, (June 27, 1909 – November 9, 1988) was an American film and television actor with dwarfism who had a 50-year career in the entertainment industry.

Career

The bulk of his work was in the western and science fiction genres. One of his early roles was uncredited as a Munchkin city father in The Wizard of Oz (1939). He had a featured role as part of the circus troupe in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942). He also appeared in Superman and the Mole Men (1951), a B-Picture intended as the pilot for the Adventures of Superman TV series.

Curtis work in westerns included the Clint Eastwood feature, High Plains Drifter (1973) in which he featured as Mordecai, a friendly dwarf sympathetic to Eastwood, he also appeared in the Musical/Western The Terror of Tiny Town (1938). This film is, as far as is known, the world's only Western with an all-midget cast. Many of the actors in Tiny Town were part of a performing troupe called Singer's Midgets, who also played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz.^[1] Curtis had a starring role in American International Pictures' Little Cigars (1973), about a gang of small people on a crime spree.

Death

Curtis died November 9, 1988, in Dayton, Nevada of a heart attack.

Selected Filmography

List of acting performances in film

Year	Title	Role	Note
1938	The Terror of Tiny Town	The Hero
1939	The Wizard of Oz	Braggart Munchkin
	Three Texas Steers	Hercules
1941	Emergency Landing	Judge Gildersleeve
1942	Saboteur	Midget
	Don't Lie	Melinda the Chimp
1946	Three Wise Fools	Dugan
1951	Superman and the Mole Men	Mole-Man
1955	Jungle Moon Men	Damu
1957	The Incredible Shrinking Man	Midget
1958	The Adventures of Superpup	Superpup
1966	Out of Sight	Flush Man
	Batman	Midget	Season 1, Episode 17 Season 1, Episode 18
1968	Star Trek: The Original Series	Small Copper-Skinned Ambassador	Season 2, Episode 10
1972	Evil Roy Slade	Toy Cowboy
1973	High Plains Drifter	Mordecai
	Little Cigars	Slick Bender
1980	Loose Shoes	Menchkin
1986	The Twilight Zone	Creature	Season 1, Episode 18

References

1. O'Connor, John E and Peter C Rollins. "Hollywood's West: The American Frontier In Film, Television, And History." 2006. American Historical Review. Ed. Professional Development Review. web. 2 October 2015.

External links

• Billy Curtis at Find a Grave
• Billy Curtis at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Curtis at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• The Terror of Tiny Town at the Internet Movie Database