Tamara Detro (October 21, 1959 – November 28, 1990), known by the stage name Tamara De Treaux, was an American stage and screen actress. She was best known for her role in film ''
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial''. She stood 31 inches tall and had
dwarfism.
Career
De Treaux played one of the three creatures in
John Newland's horror TV movie ''
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'' (1973), which was her first film role.
Making the prosthetics for De Treaux to play a "gnome-like creature" took some special adaptations, according to
John Chambers.
After ''Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'', she played on stage in the Dickens Faire and also did commercials.
For ''
Little Miss Marker'' (1980), she worked as a stand-in for the child actress. De Treaux later worked with a singing group in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
called the Medflies in 1980.
At one of the Medflies' performance in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, she was noticed by
Steven Spielberg.
She became one of the performers who played E.T. in Spielberg's film ''
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (
1982). De Treaux's work in ''
Ghoulies
''Ghoulies'' is a 1985 American horror comedy film directed by Luca Bercovici in his directorial debut, and co-written with producer Jefery Levy. It stars Peter Liapis, Lisa Pelikan, Michael Des Barres, Jack Nance, Scott Thomson, and Mariska ...
'' (1985) was praised by Michael Wilmington in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' who hated the movie, but enjoyed her performance.
De Treaux went back to the stage, appearing in by
Ramón del Valle-Inclán
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña (in Vilanova de Arousa, Galicia, Spain, 28 October 1866 – Santiago de Compostela, 5 January 1936) was a Spanish dramatist, novelist and member of the Spanish Generation of 98. He is considered per ...
in 1989 in Los Angeles in a performance staged by The Bilingual Foundation for the Arts. De Treaux was one of the models in ''Daphne and Apollo, Los Angeles'' (1990), photographed by
Joel Peter Witkin.
She was a friend of the American writer
Armistead Maupin
Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. ( ) (born May 13, 1944) is an American writer notable for '' Tales of the City'', a series of novels set in San Francisco.
Early life
Maupin was born in Washington, D.C., to Diana Jane (Barton) and Armistead Jones Ma ...
. Her diaries supplied the main influence for the heroine "Cadence Roth" in his novel ''
Maybe the Moon''.
Personal life
De Treaux stood at 31 inches tall and had
dwarfism. She was the verified
shortest ever actress. She first became interested in acting at age 13.
She was a 1978 graduate of
San Leandro High School,
San Leandro, California. De Treaux made many of her own clothes.
In 1990, she died at age 31 from respiratory and heart problems at the
North Hollywood Medical Center and is buried at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills is one of the six Forest Lawn cemeteries in Southern California. It is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, California 90068, in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Histor ...
.
[Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 12011). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.]
Filmography
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
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1959 births
1990 deaths
20th-century American actresses
Actresses from California
Actors with dwarfism
American film actresses
Place of birth missing
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
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