Since the passing of Betty Ann Bruno, just two munchkins from “The Wizard of Oz” remain. She died at the age of 91.
On Facebook, her husband Craig Sheiner said, “I am so sorry to have to tell you Betty Ann’s heart left us today.”
She had just completed dancing Pua Mana at the kanikapila in Sonoma. I took her to the emergency room when she had a severe headache. She walked up to the front desk, but then she had a heart attack and slumped on the floor.
Bruno was born in Wahiawa, Hawai’i, although she spent much of her childhood in Hollywood, California.
She made her cinematic debut in John Ford’s 1937 picture The Hurricane before appearing as a Munchkin in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.
She was cast as one of the denizens of Munchkinland among a dozen other youngsters of around average height and more than one hundred adult small people when she was seven years old.
Bruno was one of the few surviving Munchkins from the 1939 classic, and he went on to have a successful career as a political talk show producer and host before becoming an investigative reporter for KTVU.
For example, in 2018, when the media said that Jerry Maren, the last surviving Munchkin portrayed by a small kid, was the “last living Munchkin,” Bruno chimed in, stating, “Wait a minute, I’m a munchkin and I’m still alive!”
“When we walked onto the set, I had the same reaction that Dorothy has in the movie,” Bruno remarked of her initial view of the set.
“The Great Depression had hit. There was no Disneyland back then, so it was like being transported to paradise to go out onto the set and see all those vivid colours.
Jerry Maren, the only surviving ‘Wizard of Oz’ munchkin, dies at age 98. READ MORE: ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ actor Buddy Ebsen was fired from his part in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ for a horrible reason.