Billy Curtis
Acting • Born 1909-06-27 – Died 1988-11-09
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 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
71 credits
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Movie • 1957
Midget
High Plains Drifter
Movie • 1973
Mordecai
The Terror of Tiny Town
Movie • 1938
The Hero (Buck Lawson)
Eating Raoul
Movie • 1982
Little Person
Superman and the Mole Men
Movie • 1951
Mole-Man (uncredited)
Pygmy Island
Movie • 1950
Makuba
Little Cigars
Movie • 1973
Slick Bender
Homicide for Three
Movie • 1948
Circus Performer
White House Madness
Movie • 1975
Secret Service Man
Emergency Landing
Movie • 1941
Judge
Aphrodisiac: The Love Secret
Movie • 1971
Man on the Street Interviewee
Princess of the Nile
Movie • 1954
Tut (uncredited)
The Wizard of Oz
Movie • 1939
Munchkin (uncredited)
Out of Sight
Movie • 1966
The Man From F.L.U.S.H.
Robin and the 7 Hoods
Movie • 1964
Newsboy
The Wild McCullochs
Movie • 1975
Charlie P.
Hello, Dolly!
Movie • 1969
Little Person (uncredited)
Three Texas Steers
Movie • 1939
Hercules - the Midget
Jungle Moon Men
Movie • 1955
Damu
Don't Lie
Movie • 1942
Melinda, the chimp
Evil Roy Slade
Movie • 1972
Toy Cowboy (uncredited)
Planet of the Apes
Movie • 1968
Child Ape (uncredited)
April Showers
Movie • 1948
Capt. Rudolph L. Nemo
Buck Privates Come Home
Movie • 1947
Limelight
Movie • 1952
Midget in Agent's Office (uncredited)
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!
Movie • 1942
Midget
Father Guido Sarducci's Vatican Inquirer: The Pope's Tour
Movie • 1986
Monsignor Duffy
Friendly Persuasion
Movie • 1956
Midget at County Fair (uncredited)
Norwood
Movie • 1970
Edmund B. Ratner
Lucky Legs
Movie • 1942
Newsboy
Saboteur
Movie • 1942
Midget - Circus Troupe
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Movie • 1984
Barnaby
Ice-Capades
Movie • 1941
George
Loose Shoes
Movie • 1978
Menchkin
Hellzapoppin'
Movie • 1941
Bodyguard (uncredited)
Man of a Thousand Faces
Movie • 1957
Harry Earles (uncredited)
The Hard Way
Movie • 1943
Vaudeville Midget (Uncredited)
Head Office
Movie • 1985
Reverend Lynch
Backstage Party
Movie • 1961
Self
Maisie Was a Lady
Movie • 1941
Midget (Uncredited)
Bob Hope Christmas Show
Movie • 1965
Self
The Legend of Lylah Clare
Movie • 1968
Clown (uncredited)
Two on a Guillotine
Movie • 1965
Big Mike (uncredited)
The Comic
Movie • 1969
Lifeguard in Film (uncredited)
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Movie • 1984
Elf #2
Star Trek
TV • 1966
Small, copper skinned ambassador (uncredited)
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Here's Lucy
TV • 1968
Herman
Batman
TV • 1966
Midget
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1985
Creature (segment "Personal Demons")
The Beverly Hillbillies
TV • 1962
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
TV • 1979
General Yoomak
Knots Landing
TV • 1979
Billy Curtis
Laverne & Shirley
TV • 1976
Monster Squad
TV • 1976
The Ringmaster
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Arizona
Bewitched
TV • 1964
Jack O'Lantern
87th Precinct
TV • 1961
The Monkees
TV • 1966
Midget
The Greatest Show on Earth
TV • 1963
This Is Your Life
TV • 1952
Self
Adventures of Superman
TV • 1952
Adventures in Paradise
TV • 1959
Captain Borcher
Tightrope
TV • 1959
Faerie Tale Theatre
TV • 1982
Barnaby
Shirley Temple's Storybook
TV • 1958
Boomalakka Wee
Shirley Temple's Storybook
TV • 1958
Dwarf
Adventures of Superman
TV • 1952
Mole-Man #1 (uncredited)
The Cisco Kid
TV • 1950
The Laughing Badman
Get Smart
TV • 1965
El Lobo-Ito
Get Smart
TV • 1965
Tiny Allen (uncredited)