Tamara Detro (October 21, 1959 – November 28, 1990), known by the stage name Tamara De Treaux, was an American actress. She stood 31 inches tall. She was one of the performers who played ET in Steven Spielberg's film E. T. (1982), squatting inside the animatronic puppet, but was not credited.
She was a friend of the American writer Armistead Maupin. Her diaries supplied the main influence for the heroine "Cadence Roth" in his novel Maybe the Moon.[1][2]
She was a 1978 graduate of San Leandro High School, San Leandro, California. In 1990 she died at age 31 from respiratory and heart problems at the North Hollywood Medical Center. She was survived by her mother, Barbara Detro, and two siblings.[3]