Wizard of Oz Munchkin dies aged 91

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Betty Ann Bruno has died on the age of 91.

The actress – who handed away on Sunday (30.07.23) – performed a Munchkin within the 1939 traditional ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and was regarded as one of many final surviving forged members from the film.

In keeping with The Santa Rosa, California publication The Press Democrat, Betty was dancing on the Sonoma Ladies’s Membership on Sunday, when she developed a “sudden splitting headache”.

Her husband Craig Scheiner drove her to the hospital, the place “she had a large coronary heart assault and collapsed on the ground” on the entrance desk.

Schneiner informed the publication: “She had no main well being points. Her coronary heart simply wore out. She died of outdated age.”

After ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Betty moved on to a profession in TV presenting and gained three Emmy Awards for her work earlier than publishing her memoir ‘The Munchkin Diary: My Private Yellow Brick Highway’ in 2020.

She is survived by her second husband Scheiner – who she met at KTVU, the place he labored as a cameraman, producer and editor and she or he was a journalist.

She can also be survived by her three sons.

Betty was simply eight years outdated when she was forged alongside an entire host of grownup little folks to belt out classics like ‘We Welcome You to Munchkinland’ and ‘Ding Dong! The Witch is Useless’ in ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

Following the demise of co-star Jerry Maren in 2018 aged 98, Betty spoke out to verify that regardless of stories, he was not, actually, the final surviving Munchkin however acknowledged that her face can’t be seen within the ultimate minimize.

She informed TMZ: “I mentioned, ‘Wait a minute, I’m a Munchkin and I’m nonetheless alive!’ We had been all the time within the background. They didn’t wish to see youngsters’s faces however they wished our little our bodies!”

Different forged members to go lately included Ruth Duccini – who performed a Munchkin however died in 2014 on the age of 95 – and Scarecrow actor Ray Bolger, who died in 1987 on the age of 83.