VERNE TROYER

(1 January 1969 - 21 April 2018)

The American actor and stuntman Verne Troyer, who has died aged 49, possibly from suicide, was, even at just 32 inches tall, an iconic figure. He appeared in films for some twenty years in parts that called for his lack of stature, beginning in 1996 with Pinocchio’s Revenge and Jingle All the Way. He was also in Men in Black, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Mighty Joe, etc, but really came to fame in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, playing Mini-Me, a pint-sized version of Mike Myers’ title character. He appeared in video shorts, on television and in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (as Griphook), and returned for Austin Powers in Goldmember. More TV followed as well as the films Postal, College, The Love Guru, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Keith Lemon: The Movie, Convenience and Gnome Alone. His last film is the still to be completed Hipsters, Gangsters, Aliens and Geeks with Troyer as the Emperor Beezel-Chugg, but it will be Mini-Me for which he will be remembered.

MICHAEL DARVELL