Verne Troyer
Tiny actor known for playing Mini-me in Austin Powers films
VERNE TROYER, who has died aged 49, was the diminutive actor best known for playing Mini-me in the second and third Austin Powers spy spoof films directed by Jay Roach.
Mini-me first appeared as an eighth-size clone of Dr Evil (played by Mike Myers) in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). The character spoke few words, but was the subject of several gratuitous visual gags – including being flushed down a lavatory and into space.
It was a box-office hit, with Troyer and Myers sharing the following year’s MTV Movie Award for best on-screen duo.
He reprised the role three years later in Austin Powers in Goldmember, a parody of the James Bond film Goldfinger, starring Beyoncé and Michael Caine.
Despite never having had acting lessons, Troyer made frequent appearances on screen, notably as Percy in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam’s 2009 fantasy film. The same year he also came fourth in the Channel 4 television show Celebrity Big Brother (won by Ulrika Jonsson), causing chaos as he drove around the house on his scooter.
Verne Jay Troyer was born into an Amish community at Sturgis, Michigan, on New Year’s Day 1969, one of three children of Susan and Reuben Troyer, who were factory workers.
He was still a child when his parents left the Amish, or “jumped the fence”, as his father put it. He would later reminisce nostalgically on their simpler life, though admitted that he could not cope without a phone or computer. “When I go back there now I still get into that culture,” he said. “I can drive a horse and buggy.”
Born with cartilage-hair hypoplasia, a bone disorder that leads to dwarfism, Troyer stood 2ft 8in (81cm). Nevertheless, he was always included in family activities: “I had to do everything my brother and sister had to do, including raising our animal menagerie that included cows and chickens.”
At Centreville High School, Michigan, he was bullied. “There was a kid [who] called me the M-word,” he told Oprah Winfrey. “That’s just derogatory slang – the proper thing to say is either little person or dwarf. So I basically jumped up, punched him in the nose and his nose started bleeding.”
Troyer worked as a telephone operator in Michigan, but was laid off at age 21. He joined his brother, who had moved to Texas, and found work in a customer service department.
His acting break came when an organisation called Little People of America called. They had been asked to find a stunt double for the character Bink, a ninemonth-old baby, in the film Baby’s Day Out (1994). “I sent in my picture, and [the film company] flew me out to Hollywood,” he recalled. “Two days later, they offered me the job.”
After the Austin Powers successes he appeared in several films, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and Gnome Alone (2015). He was also Griphook the goblin in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001).
Troyer, a devoted video gamer, had a long battle with alcoholism. He enjoyed a colourful personal life and often visited Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion. In February 2004 he married the model Genevieve Gallen, but filed for an annulment the following day. Four years later a sex video emerged online of Troyer with his girlfriend, Ranae Shrider. Latterly he was in a relationship with the actress Brittney Powell, appearing with her and her son in Celebrity Wife Swap (2015).
Verne Troyer insisted that his height had never been a disadvantage, but he did take exception to being patted on the head, saying: “I’m not a lapdog.” Asked about his experiences of being short, he replied: “I don’t know what it’s like to be tall, so this is normal for me. It’s you guys who are abnormal.”
Verne Troyer, born January 1 1969, died April 21 2018