Ruth Leone Duccini ( Robinson; July 23, 1918 – January 16, 2014) was an American actress.

Biography

Ruth is best known as the penultimate surviving Munchkin from the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz''. Her role in the film as a Munchkin villager was not credited. Her most recent appearances were when she and the other surviving Munchkins were presented with a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

on November 21, 2007, and attending the premiere of the film's 75th anniversary at the

Grauman's Chinese Theatre Grauman's Chinese Theatre, known as the Chinese colloquially and officially billed as TCL Chinese Theatre for sponsorship reasons, is a movie palace on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, Unite ...

. She also was seen in '' Under the Rainbow'' (1981) and ''Memories of Oz'' (2001). While Duccini could not recall in 2013 what she earned filming ''Oz'', the Munchkin village actors were paid $50 a week during filming, plus room/board. She said of her

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

work: Duccini made the news again when

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

died, and critics of the former British premier tried to propel " Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" onto the chart to celebrate her passing. Duccini and Jerry Maren (who would become the last surviving adult Munchkin) said the song was never to be used in such a way, stating: Duccini died in Las Vegas, at the age of 95, on January 16, 2014. She outlived every major cast member of ''The Wizard of Oz''.

Filmography

References

External links

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''The Wizard of Oz'' Special Screening Honoring the Munchkins Photo Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duccini, Ruth 1918 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American women Actors with dwarfism American actors with disabilities Actresses from Minnesota American film actresses People from Chisago County, Minnesota