Betty Ann Bruno has died at the age of 91.
Munchkin Betty Ann Bruno has died
The actress was cast as a Munchkin in 'The Wizard of Oz' and was thought to be one of the last surviving cast members from the 1939 classic that starred Judy Garland - who died in 1969 at the age of 47 - as a Kansas farm girl swept away to a magical land, but passed away on Sunday (30.07.23), her family have now confirmed to Deadline without providing a cause of death.
After 'The Wizard of Oz', Betty moved on to a career in TV presenting and won three Emmy Awards for her work before publishing her memoir 'The Munchkin Diary: My Personal Yellow Brick Road' in 2020.
She is survived by her husband Craig Scheiner and their three sons and was living in California at the time of her death.
Betty was just six years old when she was cast alongside a whole host of adult little people - billed as The Singer Midgets in the film - to belt out classics like 'We Welcome You to Munchkinland' and 'Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead' in the memorable scene from the film.
Following the death of Jerry Maren - who headed up the Lollipop Guild and handed Judy Garland a lollipop during the musical segment but died in 2018 aged 98 - Betty spoke out to confirm that despite reports, he was not, in fact, the last surviving Munchkin as had been widely reported but acknowledged that her face can not be seen in the final cut.
She told TMZ: "I said, ‘Wait a minute, I’m a Munchkin and I’m still alive!’ We were always in the background. They didn’t want to see children’s faces but they wanted our little bodies!"
Other cast members to pass in recent years included Ruth Duccini - who played a Munchkin but died in 2014 at the age of 95 - but the last of the major cast members to pass was the Scarecrow actor Ray Bolger, who died in 1987 at the age of 83.
Tagged in Judy Garland