Billy Barty
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Millsboro, Pennsylvania, USA
American dwarf actor Billy Barty always claimed to have been born in the early '20s, but the evidence of his somewhat wizened, all-knowing countenance in his film appearances of the 1930s would suggest that he was at least ten years shy of the whole truth. At any rate, Barty made many film appearances from at least 1931 onward, most often cast as bratty children due to his height. He was a peripheral member of an Our Gang rip-off in the Mickey McGuire comedy shorts, portrayed the infant-turned-pig in Alice in Wonderland (1933), he did a turn in blackface as a "shrunken" Eddie Cantor in Roman Scandals (also 1933), and he frequently popped up as a lasciviously leering baby in the risqué musical highlights of Busby Berkeley's Warner Bros. films. One of Barty's most celebrated cinema moments occurred in 1937's Nothing Sacred, in which, playing a small boy, he pops up out of nowhere to bite Fredric March in the leg. Barty was busy but virtually anonymous in films, since he seldom received screen credit. TV audiences began to connect his name with his face in the 1950s when Barty was featured on various variety series hosted by bandleader Spike Jones. Disdainful of certain professional "little people" who rely on size alone to get laughs, Barty was seen at his very best on the Jones programs, dancing, singing, and delivering dead-on impressions: the diminutive actor's takeoff on Liberace was almost unbearably funny. Though he was willing to poke fun at himself on camera, Barty was fiercely opposed to TV and film producers who exploited midgets and dwarves, and as he continued his career into the 1970s and '80s, Barty saw to it that his own roles were devoid of patronization -- in fact, he often secured parts that could have been portrayed by so-called "normal" actors, proof that one's stature has little to do with one's talent. A two-fisted advocate of equitable treatment of short actors, Billy Barty took time away from his many roles in movies (Foul Play [1978], Willow [1988]) and TV to maintain his support organization The Little People of America and the Billy Barty Foundation. Billy Barty died in December 2000 of heart failure.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | The Godmothers |
|
— | 2014 |
No Score Yet | The Mouse and the Motorcycle |
|
— | 2008 |
8% | An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn |
|
— | 1998 |
24% | Radioland Murders |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | Wishful Thinking |
|
— | 1992 |
No Score Yet | The Naked Truth |
|
— | 1992 |
18% | Life Stinks |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | A Family Matter |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Going Under |
|
— | 1991 |
70% | The Rescuers Down Under |
|
— | 1990 |
61% | UHF |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Lobster Man from Mars |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Diggin' Up Business |
|
— | 1989 |
51% | Willow |
|
— | 1988 |
No Score Yet | Off the Mark (Crazy Legs) |
|
— | 1987 |
13% | Masters of the Universe |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | The Story of Snow White |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | Body Slam |
|
— | 1987 |
57% | Tough Guys |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | Cannon Movie Tales: Rumpelstiltskin |
|
— | 1986 |
38% | Legend |
|
— | 1985 |
No Score Yet | Night Patrol |
|
— | 1984 |
0% | Under the Rainbow |
|
— | 1981 |
No Score Yet | Being Different |
|
— | 1981 |
10% | Hardly Working |
|
— | 1981 |
No Score Yet | Skatetown U.S.A. |
|
— | 1979 |
No Score Yet | Firepower |
|
— | 1979 |
74% | Foul Play |
|
— | 1978 |
No Score Yet | Rabbit Test |
|
— | 1978 |
No Score Yet | The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | The Amazing Dobermans |
|
— | 1976 |
20% | Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood |
|
— | 1976 |
No Score Yet | W.c. Fields And Me |
|
— | 1976 |
No Score Yet | Paul Lynde Halloween Special |
|
— | 1976 |
No Score Yet | Paul Lynde Halloween Special |
|
— | 1976 |
No Score Yet | Punch and Jody |
|
— | 1976 |
60% | The Day of the Locust |
|
— | 1975 |
No Score Yet | Sigmund and the Sea Monsters |
|
— | 1973 |
No Score Yet | Pufnstuf |
|
— | 1970 |
No Score Yet | Harum Scarum |
|
— | 1965 |
56% | Roustabout |
|
— | 1964 |
No Score Yet | Billy Rose's Jumbo |
|
— | 1962 |
No Score Yet | The Undead |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | The Clown |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | Jungle Jim in Pygmy Island |
|
— | 1950 |
100% | Nothing Sacred |
|
— | 1937 |
91% | A Midsummer Night's Dream |
|
— | 1935 |
98% | The Bride of Frankenstein |
|
— | 1935 |
No Score Yet | Gift of Gab |
|
— | 1934 |
67% | Alice in Wonderland |
|
— | 1933 |
100% | Footlight Parade |
|
— | 1933 |
100% | Gold Diggers of 1933 |
|
— | 1933 |
80% | Roman Scandals |
|
— | 1933 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
93% |
Frasier
1993-2004
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Golden Girls
1985-1992
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Little House on the Prairie
1974-1983
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
CHiPs
1977-1983
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Charlie's Angels
1976-1981
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Barney Miller
1975-1982
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Waltons
1972-1981
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Get Smart
1965-1970
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962-1965
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955-1962
|
|
|
Quotes from Billy Barty's Characters
High Aldwin: | Go in the direction the bird is flying! |
Burglekutt Prefect: | It's going back to the village! |
High Aldwin: | Ignore the bird. Follow the river. |
High Aldwin: | Magic is the bloodstream of the universe. Forget all you know, or think you know. All that you require is your intuition. |