The last Munchkin

He's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead.

While the name Meinhardt Rabbe may not be familiar, the role that made him famous surely is. If you've ever seen a little film called The Wizard Of Oz, you've seen Meinhardt as the munchkin coroner. It wasn't the first time being small had big benefits for him.

For thirty years before he made his pronouncement regarding the death of the wicked witch, he worked as a salesman for Oscar Meyer, becoming known as Little Oscar, "The World's Smallest Chef." Then, in 1938, he heard there was a movie casting as many little people as they could find. So he headed to Hollywood, auditioned for TWOO, and the rest is history.

Although he had a few roles in other pictures afterwards, he never again achieved the same level of fame as he did from singing his one famous line as coroner of Oz. He wound up spending the remainder of his career making appearances at events and conventions for the movie.

Recognizing the uniqueness of his story, Meinhardt decided to document his life in an autobiography called Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down The Yellow Brick Road.

In 2007 he joined other surviving munchkins to receive a long overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Even at 94, it was a short life.