Recent Obituaries, Classic Films Only

[CBHagman]

72. Ruth Robinson Duccini, 95, last female member of the "Oz" Munchkins.

[url]http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-et-mn-ruth-robinson-duccini-95-dies-oz-munchkin-20140116,0,427370.story#axzz2qia5mv6v[/url]

Ruth Robinson Duccini, one of the last members of the troupe of diminutive actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 film classic "The Wizard of Oz," died Thursday after a brief illness at a hospice in Las Vegas, said her son, Fred Duccini. She was 95.

The actress, who lived for many years in Los Angeles before moving to Arizona and later Nevada, was one of 124 "little people," then called midgets, who appeared with Judy Garland in the musical fantasy based on the novel by L. Frank Baum.

In her later years she appeared at "Oz" events across the country. She returned to Hollywood in 2007 when the Munchkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Except for Jerry Maren (born Gerard Marenghi), there are no other known members of the Munchkins troupe alive at this writing, at least if we're talking about the adults in the Munchkinland sequence.