Billy Barty, R.I.P.

Billy Barty's last TV appearance was on the E! True Hollywood Story profile on Sid and Marty Krofft that debuted on Christmas Eve.  Billy died the day before, and Marty spent quite some time on the phone, trying and failing to locate someone at the E! Channel to ask that they insert some sort of dedication/tribute to the long-time Krofft player.  Billy had been in poor health for some time and the E! folks only deemed airable, about eight seconds of a very long interview they taped with him.  (Wish they'd used as little of me.  I'm thinking of making that my last TV appearance, as well.)

I wrote a long article about Billy which will be in next week's Comic Buyers Guide and which will turn up on this site, eventually.  Basically, it talks about how funny he was…and how his long, amazing career was built on a lot more than dwarfism.  Hervé Villechaize (with whom I also worked) was a fluke, hired only for the accident of his height.  But Billy Barty was, first and foremost, an actor.  That's why he worked constantly for something like seventy (!) years.