Billy Curtis

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Billy Curtis

Billy in 1959

Born

Luigi Curto
June 27, 1909

United States Springfield, Massachusetts,

Died

November 9, 1988 (age 79)
Dayton, Nevada

Other name(s)

Little Billy , The Singer Midgets

Years active

1938-1988

Spouse(s)

Joann Curtis (1948 - 1988) 2 children

[none Official website]

Awards won
Academy Awards
none

Billy Curtis (1909–1988) 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 9 November 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 meters). 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, and 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.