Jerry Maren, the last surviving munchkin from the classic 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz, has died aged 99.
The actor’s niece Stacy Michelle Barrington said on Wednesday that Maren died at a San Diego nursing home on May 24.
Maren, who was just 4ft 3in tall, was one of more than 100 people recruited to play munchkins in the film.
He stood out among the others, however, as the “Lollipop Kid” who sang, danced and then famously handed Judy Garland’s Dorothy an oversized lollipop.
Maren would go on to appear in scores of other films, as well as TV shows and commercials, in a career that spanned more than 70 years.
But he said The Wizard Of Oz always held a special place in his heart.
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