Prince Denis, 84, Performer Who Played Munchkin Mayor (original) (raw)
Prince Denis, 84, Performer Who Played Munchkin Mayor
Advertisement
- June 24, 1984
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
June 24, 1984
,
Section 1, Page
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Prince Denis, who played the diminutive mayor of Munchkinland who told Dorothy to follow the Yellow Brick Road in the film classic ''The Wizard of Oz,'' died Thursday. He was 84 years old.
Mr. Denis was 3 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 80 pounds when he was chosen in 1939 for the movie about a Kansas girl swept by a tornado to the magical kingdom of Oz. He said he got the job because the director felt he was ''the most distinguished.''
A native of France, Mr. Denis spent much of his life with circuses, including Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. He also had roles in two other movies, ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' and ''Three Wise Fools.''
Mr. Denis and his wife, Ethel, who he married in 1939, were once billed as the world's smallest couple at circuses and carnivals. Mrs. Denis died in 1968.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section
1
, Page
24
of the National edition
with the headline:
Prince Denis, 84, Performer Who Played Munchkin Mayor. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Advertisement