Billy Curtis
Midget actor Billy Curtis, born June 27, 1909, avoided the usual freak-show employment as a youth for someone his size, opting for a mainstream job as a shoe clerk. Encouraged by stock company actress Shirley Booth to take a little person role in a stage production, Curtis soon became a professional actor, with numerous Broadway musical productions to his credit. Curtis' big movie season was 1938-39: he was cast as the Mayor of the Munchkin City in 1939's Wizard of Oz and as the cowboy hero of the all-midget western in 1938's Terror of Tiny Town. This last epic was one of the few instances that Curtis was cast as a good guy; many of his screen characters were ill-tempered and pugnacious, willing to bite a kneecap if unable to punch out an opponent. Seldom accepting a role that demeaned little people, Curtis played an obnoxious vaudeville performer compelled to sit on Gary Cooper's lap in the 1941Meet John Doe, a suspicious circus star willing to turn Robert Cummings over to the cops in 1942 Saboteur, and in 1957 as one of the many fair-weather friends of The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Superman had his first brush with Billy in 1951 when he was cast as one of the Mole Men in "Superman and the Mole Men", and then in 1956 in episode #90 - "Mr. Zero" of "The Adventures of Superman" he played a martian by the name of Zero Zero Zero Minus One, and again in 1958 when he was the lead in a pilot named "The Adventures of Superpup" meant to be a children's show with little people in dog costumes. Billy Curtis, star of "Superman and the Molemen," played Bark Bent who was a reporter working for Perry Bite. When the evil Professor Sheep dip kidnaps Pamela Poodle, it's our hero to the rescue. Faster than the speediest jet. More powerful than the mightiest rocket. Able to fly around the world faster than you can say "Superpup". Yes, it's Superpup, and only you and I know that Superpup is really Bark Bent, star reporter for the Daily Bugle. Needless to say, this pilot never became a series. The Man of Steel was not the only comic book hero Billy came in contact with. In 1966 Billy Curtis played a henchman in two episodes of the "Batman" TV show. Episodes-# 17-"True or False Face", March 9, 1966, and # 18 - "Holy Rat Race", March 10, 1966.
Billy Curtis' career thrived into the 1970s, notably with solid parts in the 1972 Clint Eastwood western High Plains Drifter and the 1973 crime-caper meller Little Cigars, in which he had second billing as a diminutive criminal mastermind. Billy Curtis retired in the 1980s, except for the occasional interview or Wizard of Oz cast reunion. He died November 9th, 1988 of a heart attack.
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