Austin Powers star Verne Troyer has died aged 49, his official social media accounts have confirmed.
The diminutive US actor, best known for playing Mini-Me in the spy comedy films, had openly struggled with alcoholism.
Earlier this month the Hollywood star had been admitted to hospital in Los Angeles.
A statement posted on his social media pages read: “It is with great sadness and incredibly heavy hearts to write that Verne passed away today.
“Verne was an extremely caring individual. He wanted to make everyone smile, be happy, and laugh.
“Verne was also a fighter when it came to his own battles. Over the years he’s struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much.
“You never know what kind of battle someone is going through inside. Be kind to one another. And always know, it’s never too late to reach out to someone for help.”
Troyer, who appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2009, was recently baptised while surrounded by family, the message added.
The actor’s credits also include Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone and Men In Black.
The statement added that, rather than flowers, well-wishers should donate to his “two favourite charities; The Starkey Hearing Foundation and Best Buddies”.
American glamour model Carmen Electra shared a snap of the two of them on Instagram in which she can be seen holding Troyer in her arms.
The Baywatch actress simply posted “R.I.P Verne Troyer” along with the image.
West Wing star Marlee Matlin took to Twitter in the wake of the news, describing him as having a “lovely smile with a caring and big heart”.
Singer Vanilla Ice and American Pie actress Shannon Elizabeth also posted images of themselves with Troyer following the news of his death.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here