Actor
Born: January 1, 1969
Died: April 21, 2018
VERNE TROYER, who has died aged 49, was an American actor who was best known for the role of Mini-Me in the second and third instalments of Mike Myers’ Austin Powers series of films, 1999’s The Spy Who Shagged Me and 2002’s Goldmember.
Immediately recognisable for having the genetic disorder cartilage-hair hypoplasia, Troyer was cast in the role because, at two feet and eight inches, he was one of the smallest people in the world and an obvious fit for the sight-gag behind Mini-Me – that he was a much smaller clone of Austin Powers’ nemesis Doctor Evil, also played by Myers.
It was a casting choice which has subsequently come in for criticism, namely that the key purpose of Mini-Me was to laugh at people whose height makes them different and out of the ordinary. Yet that would be to dismiss the fact that Troyer was by then – and continued to be – a professional actor and stunt double whose filmed CV would be the envy of many Hollywood character actors, and that it was his own ability as a comic performer, particularly as an equal double act partner for Myers, which made the role of Mini-Me.
So impressed was Myers with what Troyer brought to the part in rehearsals that he rewrote The Spy Who Shagged Me to give Mini-Me a larger part, and removed a death scene when test audiences disapproved of the character meeting his end.
Although it was a non-speaking part, Mini-Me made Troyer an internationally-recognised celebrity, and after The Spy Who Shagged Me he was offered the part of the goblin Griphook in Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), although the character was voiced by Warwick Davis.
Further significant roles included a fierce ice hockey coach on The Love Guru (2008), which was also a reunion with Mike Myers and as the title character’s confidant Percy in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), playing opposite Christopher Plummer (Troyer had previously cameoed as a waiter in the director’s 1998 adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).
He also appeared in Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), was in the direct-to-video thriller Hard Cash (2002) and played himself in cult German director Uwe Boll’s Postal (2007), while minor pre-fame appearances included playing in combat with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way (1996), in Barry Sonnenfeld’s sci-fi comedy Men in Black (1997) and a debut role as the baby of the title’s ‘stunt double’ in John Hughes’ Baby’s Day Out (1994).
That Troyer managed to carve out such a varied film career is impressive, though he also embraced more commercial opportunities – reality television appearances included the sixth series of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2009 – and was frank about his battles with alcohol and depression.
His controversial marriage to model Genevieve Gallen in 2004 was annulled, while he sued over the release of a sex tape with then-girlfriend Ranae Shrider in 2008.
Born the middle child of factory worker parents in Michigan, Troyer grew up partly in an Amish community. At the time of his death he had been with his partner, the German-American actress Brittney Powell, for 11 years.
David Pollock
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