Karl Slover, one of the last surviving actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz has died. He was 93.
The 4-foot 50-inch Slover died of cardiopulmonary arrest on Tuesday afternoon in a central Georgia hospital, said Laurens County Deputy Coroner Nathan Stanley. According to friends, as recently as last weekend, Slover appeared at events in the suburban Chicago area.
Slover was best known for playing the lead trumpeter in the Munchkins’ band but also had roles as a townsman and soldier in the film, said John Fricke, author of 100 Years of Oz and five other books on the movie and its star, Judy Garland. Slover was one of the tiniest male Munchkins in the movie.
Long after Slover retired, he continued to appear around the country at festivals and events related to the movie.
He was one of seven Munchkins at the 2007 unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame dedicated to the little people in the movie. Only three remain of the 124 diminutive actors who played the beloved Munchkins.
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Indo-Canadian porn star to join Bigg Boss
New Delhi: If it was Pamela Anderson who raised the mercury levels in reality show Bigg Boss 4, this season Indo-Canadian porn star Sunny Leone is set to make an entry on Saturday. “Sunny is coming down especially for the show and will enter (Bigg Boss’s house) on November 20,” a source from the channel Colors confirmed. The 30-year-old, whose real name is Karen Malhotra, will land in Mumbai on Thursday night. Born to a Punjabi family in Ontario, Leone has appeared in various reality shows in the US, and was named among the world’s top 12 porn stars by fashion magazine Maxim in 2010. Leone was also approached by acclaimed Bollywood director Mohit Suri for his film Kalyug, a film about the growing pornography industry.
For the ongoing, fifth season of Bigg Boss, there was buzz that international pop star Shakira or boxer Mike Tyson might join the show. — IANS