Last of the Wizard of Oz Munchkins dies, aged 98

The last of the Munchkins from the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz has died in San Diego.

American actor Gerard Marenghi, known as Jerry Maren, was 98 and had been suffering from dementia.

He was just 18 when he shot his scenes for the much-loved film, playing one of the Lollipop Guild. At the time he was just 3ft 6in tall.

He became the last known survivor of the Munchkin cast following the death of Ruth Duccini in 2014.

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where his father worked in a shoe factory. His five sisters and four brothers were all of average height.

He started taking lessons for singing and dancing in his early teens and joined forces with his teacher to create an act known as Three Steps and a Hop which toured New England.

Following The Wizard of Oz, in which he handed a lollipop to Judy Garland’s Dorothy, he continued acting and appeared in many movies and television shows.

He had roles in the Marx Brothers’ At The Circus (1939), and as an ape in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). He and fellow Munchkin Billy Curtis were also reunited for American International Pictures’ Little Cigars (1973), about a gang of “midgets” on a crime spree.

In the 1950s Maren worked as a Little Oscar for the Oscar Mayer Company and as Buster Brown in television. Later he joined his friend Billy Barty in organising Little People of America – an organisation for people of shorter stature.