Cast
Billy Curtis
Acting
Cast
Billy Curtis
Known for
Acting
Born
1909-06-27
From
Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Died
1988-11-09
Also known as Luigi Curto
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.
The Wizard of Oz
as Munchkin (uncredited)
Planet of the Apes
as Child Ape (uncredited)
High Plains Drifter
as Mordecai
Friendly Persuasion
as Midget at County Fair (uncredited)
Saboteur
as Midget - Circus Troupe
Hello, Dolly!
as Little Person (uncredited)
Eating Raoul
as Little Person
The Comic
as Lifeguard in Film (uncredited)
Limelight
as Midget in Agent's Office (uncredited)
Hellzapoppin'
as Bodyguard (uncredited)
Robin and the 7 Hoods
as Newsboy
The Incredible Shrinking Man
as Midget
Little Cigars
as Slick Bender
Head Office
as Reverend Lynch
Man of a Thousand Faces
as Harry Earles (uncredited)
Superman and the Mole Men
as Mole-Man (uncredited)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
as Clown (uncredited)
Loose Shoes
as Menchkin
April Showers
as Capt. Rudolph L. Nemo
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!
as Midget
Buck Privates Come Home
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
as Elf #2
Homicide for Three
as Circus Performer
Aphrodisiac: The Love Secret
as Man on the Street Interviewee
The Hard Way
as Vaudeville Midget (Uncredited)
Norwood
as Edmund B. Ratner
Evil Roy Slade
as Toy Cowboy (uncredited)
Princess of the Nile
as Tut (uncredited)
Lucky Legs
as Newsboy
The Terror of Tiny Town
as The Hero (Buck Lawson)
Two on a Guillotine
as Big Mike (uncredited)
The Wild McCullochs
as Charlie P.
Maisie Was a Lady
as Midget (Uncredited)
Backstage Party
as Self
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
as Barnaby
Emergency Landing
as Judge
Jungle Moon Men
as Damu
Pygmy Island
as Makuba
Ice-Capades
as George
Out of Sight
as The Man From F.L.U.S.H.
Three Texas Steers
as Hercules - the Midget
Bob Hope Christmas Show
as Self
Father Guido Sarducci's Vatican Inquirer: The Pope's Tour
as Monsignor Duffy
White House Madness
as Secret Service Man
Don't Lie
as Melinda, the chimp