Billy Curtis
Actor
Born June 27, 1909 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
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.
Filmography
Father Guido Sarducci's Vatican Inquirer: The Pope's Tour
Monsignor Duffy
The Twilight Zone
Creature (segment "Personal Demons")
Head Office
Reverend Lynch
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Elf #2
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Barnaby
Faerie Tale Theatre
Barnaby
Eating Raoul
Little Person
Knots Landing
Billy Curtis
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
General Yoomak
Loose Shoes
Menchkin
Monster Squad
The Ringmaster
Laverne & Shirley
The Wild McCullochs
Charlie P.
White House Madness
Secret Service Man
Little Cigars
Slick Bender
High Plains Drifter
Mordecai
Evil Roy Slade
Toy Cowboy (uncredited)
Dirty Harry
Aphrodisiac: The Love Secret
Man on the Street Interviewee
Norwood
Edmund B. Ratner
Hello, Dolly!
Little Person (uncredited)
The Comic
Lifeguard in Film (uncredited)
Here's Lucy
Herman
The Legend of Lylah Clare
Clown (uncredited)
Planet of the Apes
Child Ape (uncredited)
The Monkees
Midget
Star Trek
Small, copper skinned ambassador (uncredited)
Out of Sight
The Man From F.L.U.S.H.
Batman
Midget
Get Smart
El Lobo-Ito
Two on a Guillotine
Big Mike (uncredited)
Bewitched
Jack O'Lantern
Robin and the 7 Hoods
Newsboy
The Beverly Hillbillies
Backstage Party
Self
87th Precinct
Adventures in Paradise
Captain Borcher
Tightrope
77 Sunset Strip
Shirley Temple's Storybook
Boomalakka Wee
Man of a Thousand Faces
Harry Earles (uncredited)
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Midget
Friendly Persuasion
Midget at County Fair (uncredited)
Gunsmoke
Arizona
Jungle Moon Men
Damu
Princess of the Nile
Tut (uncredited)
Limelight
Midget in Agent's Office (uncredited)
This Is Your Life
Self
Adventures of Superman
Superman and the Mole Men
Mole-Man (uncredited)
Pygmy Island
Makuba
Homicide for Three
Circus Performer
April Showers
Capt. Rudolph L. Nemo
Buck Privates Come Home
The Hard Way
Vaudeville Midget (Uncredited)
Lucky Legs
Newsboy
Saboteur
Midget - Circus Troupe
Don't Lie
Melinda, the chimp
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!
Midget
Hellzapoppin'
Bodyguard (uncredited)
Ice-Capades
George
Emergency Landing
Judge
Maisie Was a Lady
Midget (Uncredited)
The Wizard of Oz
Munchkin (uncredited)
Three Texas Steers
Hercules - the Midget
The Terror of Tiny Town
The Hero (Buck Lawson)