I'm looking for examples of unusually short action heroes.

[Skald the Rhymer]

You'd think the title said it all, but being neurotic I must make a few qualifications:

1) I've already though of comic book Wolverine, movie Willow, and Piers Anthony's Stile, thanks.
2) Cinematic characters who are portrayed by short actors, but whose shortness is obscured by camera tricks and what not, are not what I am looking for.
3) I have also already thought of Hobbits.
4) Y'all know I always forget what number four is.
5) Literary, stage, television, and cinema are all welcome.

Thanks!

[Annie-Xmas]

Shrinking Violet

Al Pratt, the Golden Age Atom

[Baal Houtham]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Mouser

Semi-famous science fiction author Fritz Lieber wrote a sword & sorcery series featuring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. I don't remember the Mouser's height, but probably around 5'.

The stories are well written, well regarded. The pair often did jobs for Ningauble of the Seven Eyes.

[Dioptre]

Marty, in Back-to-the-Future, is played by the short Michael J Fox, and not scaled
up to look tall. There are a few scenes where his short size compared to the antagonists is very evident.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by Annie-Xmas

Shrinking Violet

I'd not count her or any other shrinking hero. I am seeking characters whose normal size is much smaller than their species, not ones who magically slap around the laws of physics.

Al Pratt, the Golden Age Atom

Now he's what I mean, as is McFly.

[Tom Scud]

Miles Vorkosigan.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

You didn't mention fantasy dwarves, e.g., the ones in LOTR. Not sure if they fall in the same category as hobbits.

Also there are the gelflings in The Dark Crystal, who have some pretty cool action sequences.

There's Joe Pesci's psycho Nicky Santoro in Casino.

And surely number four was David?

[JThunder]

Tom Thumb from the Squadron Supreme.

[Der Trihs]

Miles Vorkosigan and his clone-brother Mark.

Antonina, wife of Belisarius in the alternate history Belisarius series. Especially the part where she slaughters a bunch of thugs with a cleaver.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by Left Hand of Dorkness

You didn't mention fantasy dwarves, e.g., the ones in LOTR. Not sure if they fall in the same category as hobbits.

I would not use hobbits for this purpose, because both tales told about them are from their point of view. Frodo & Sam don't think of themselves of short; they think of themselves moving in a world of giants.

[Maggie the Ocelot]

Puck from Alpha Flight.

[Intergalactic Gladiator]

Originally Posted by Maggie the Ocelot

Puck from Alpha Flight.

At some point, there was a story that he was shorter because he absorbed a demon or something. I don't know if the sotry stuck.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by Intergalactic Gladiator

At some point, there was a story that he was shorter because he absorbed a demon or something. I don't know if the sotry stuck.

I remember that tale. It's form the same period of retconning Northstar's implicit homosexuality (and suffering from AIDS) as his being a fairy and being ill because he was allergic to, Earth.

In fact, screw the . That deserves a or twelve.

Anyway, during the Byrne run, in the first Puck solo story, Puck specifically identifies himself as a little person and names the specific disorder, referring to a lack of growth in all the long bones. I'd go with that explanation; it makes him more interesting.

Also the Byrne run has many cheesecake pictures of Heather Hudson, which was a good thing. This was back before all superheroines or female romantic interests had to have breast implants.

[StGermain]

Besides Miles Vorkosigan (and you can't beat Miles, really), I'd recommend George Chesbro's Mongo the Magnificent. It's a series of mysteries starring Dr. Robert Fredrickson, AKA Mongo the Magnificent (he performed in the circus and has a doctorate in History).

StG

[Der Trihs]

Jeremy X and Anton Zilwiki of the Honorverse may count, depending on how short you are defining "unusually short" as. They are both consistently described as relatively short men (respectively, short and slender, and short and built like a fantasy dwarf); but they aren't really short like Vorkosigan, say. Just shorter enough than average to be remarked upon. More short like Wolverine.

[Enderw24]

I was seriously about to suggest the movie Willow. Yes, I know you posted it in your OP, but my mind went immediately to Buffy's Willow and I thought "huh...she doesn't seem THAT short. Oh well, moving on"

Hey, what about Reepicheep?

[Tom Scud]

Ender Wiggin, at least in Ender's Game. And his sidekick whose name I forget.

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

Ender Wiggin, at least in Ender's Game. And his sidekick whose name I forget.

Bean

[Beadalin]

A fun blast from the past that's only barely on topic: Teeny Little Super Guy (Classic Sesame Street)

[Mtgman]

If children count, then Billy Batson, also known as Captain Marvel. From the live action tv show "The Wizard"(like MacGyver but with midgets) there was Simon McKay. He was always pretty cool.

Enjoy,
Steven

[Capitaine Zombie]

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

I remember that tale. It's form the same period of retconning Northstar's implicit homosexuality (and suffering from AIDS) as his being a fairy and being ill because he was allergic to, Earth.

In fact, screw the . That deserves a or twelve.

Anyway, during the Byrne run, in the first Puck solo story, Puck specifically identifies himself as a little person and names the specific disorder, referring to a lack of growth in all the long bones. I'd go with that explanation; it makes him more interesting.

Also the Byrne run has many cheesecake pictures of Heather Hudson, which was a good thing. This was back before all superheroines or female romantic interests had to have breast implants.

Was a big fan of Alpha Flight precisely at that period, and I absolutely dont remember JP Beaubier (note how the "gay" token is a French speaker) having AIDS. At the time he was not specifically revealed as being gay, and certainly not as having AIDS. If I remember right Bill Mantlo was writing the series at the time, and Northstar was sick either because of his loss of connection with his sister or contamination by Pestilence (a lot of things in Mantlo's run were extremely confusing).
Puck was later retconned by Mantlo as being an adventurer from the thirties that got reduced in height for trapping a Persian sorcerer inside of him, at the price of great pains but also with the reward of considerably slowing his aging. Originally, it is clear Byrne just intended Puck to be a very agile dwarf (probably due to mutant genes) with a genetic recurring pain (apparently something some dwarfs experience in real life). Mantlo didnt get the biological explanation and went for a mystical one. Too bad, Byrne's Puck was quite original. Still, Puck got rid of his curse, and as an aging adventurer was a great character too.


Total thread hijack.

[Tangent]

Asterix is short, and not just in comparison to Obelix.

[Kyla]

Buffy's pretty short. IMDB says SMG is 5'4".

[Alessan]

So's Spike.

Deal with it, fangirls.

[HeadNinja]

Inch High, Private Eye was not very tall. He used this to his advantage.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

Inch High, Private Eye

ETA: Ninja'ed by HeadNinja!!!!!

[Little Nemo]

Durkon Thundershield

[The Amazing Hanna]

Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in WWII and later a movie actor, was probably the closest thing to a real-life action hero there's ever been. He was tiny - five foot five.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

Professor Challenger from Conan Doyle's The Lost World and other works
However, the best short hero is Doc Savage's sidekick Lt. Col. Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair

[BrotherCadfael]

Napoleon Bonaparte?

[Beware of Doug]

Anyone played by Alan Ladd when not standing on a box.

[Intergalactic Gladiator]

Oh yeah, Wolverine's pretty short, too. When he's not being played by Jackman.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by Enderw24

I was seriously about to suggest the movie Willow. Yes, I know you posted it in your OP, but my mind went immediately to Buffy's Willow and I thought "huh...she doesn't seem THAT short. Oh well, moving on"

Hey, what about Reepicheep?

Reepicheep is about the size of a housecat. He's unusually tall for a mouse (though not for for a Talking Mouse of Narnia).

And of course I am interested in human characters anyway.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by Mtgman

If children count, then Billy Batson, also known as Captain Marvel. From the live action tv show "The Wizard"(like MacGyver but with midgets) there was Simon McKay. He was always pretty cool.

Enjoy,
Steven

I'm not going to use Billy. He does almost all his hero stuff as Captain Marvel (who of course is not Shazam, and who's also probably around 6'2" or 6'3"). And he's not done growing (in his own mind, I mean; of course he'll probably never grow up in continuity).

[The Devil's Grandmother]

Originally Posted by The Amazing Hanna

He was tiny - five foot five.

<draws self up to full height> 5'5" is not tiny.

Are cartoons allowed? Atom Ant may be the smallest superhero.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by The Devil's Grandmother

<draws self up to full height> 5'5" is not tiny.

Are cartoons allowed? Atom Ant may be the smallest superhero.

I shan't object if y'all want to talk about shrinkers and, but for my purposes, only humans who without magical size-changing powers count.

[Steophan]

Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass.

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

Oh, I forgot. Another Doc Savage aide, Major Thomas "Long Tom" Roberts, is usually described as a runt.

[Kamino Neko]

Originally Posted by Intergalactic Gladiator

At some point, there was a story that he was shorter because he absorbed a demon or something. I don't know if the sotry stuck.

Yup.

I was going to mention him, but when I went to get a link to put in the post, I noticed his height was listed as '3'6" formerly 6'6"'. Read the bio...yep, sure enough, someone left him in the drier too longthe demon shrunk him.

[Lamia]

Terry Pratchett's work features a number of short people in action roles, but most are non-human (e.g. dwarves, gnomes, the Nac Mac Feegle). The only unusually short human character I can think of at the moment is Nobby Nobbs* of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, but I don't know that you'd call him a hero. I mean, he's generally one of the good guys and has definitely seen action, but since he's usually robbing corpses afterward then "hero" is maybe not the best description.

*His exact species has been questioned, but he does have a certificate from the Patrician stating that he is in all probability a human.

[Der Trihs]

Originally Posted by Lamia

Terry Pratchett's work features a number of short people in action roles, but most are non-human (e.g. dwarves, gnomes, the Nac Mac Feegle). The only unusually short human character I can think of at the moment is Nobby Nobbs* of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, but I don't know that you'd call him a hero. I mean, he's generally one of the good guys and has definitely seen action, but since he's usually robbing corpses afterward then "hero" is maybe not the best description.

*His exact species has been questioned, but he does have a certificate from the Patrician stating that he is in all probability a human.

Lu-Tze possibly? The subject of Rule One: "Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling man".

[Wendell Wagner]

Kyla writes:

> Buffy's pretty short. IMDB says SMG is 5'4".

The average height for adult American females is 5'4".

The Amazing Hanna writes:

> Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in WWII and later a movie actor, was
> probably the closest thing to a real-life action hero there's ever been. He was
> tiny - five foot five.

The average height for adult American males at present is 5'9.5", so that's not tiny. Furthermore, the average height was slightly less during Murphy's lifetime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

How about Chiun from Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins?

Joel Grey is 5'5".

[Krokodil]

Cordwainer Bird, alter-ego (and frequent pseudonym) of Harlan Ellison and the protagonist of his Weird Heroes Vol. 2 short story, "The New York Review of Bird." An exaggerated version of Ellison's own public persona, Bird was exactly 4 feet tall, a master of Jeet Kune Do, and a literary vigilante (He would shove incompetent editors out of high windows, beat up bookstore employees for putting his book of essays in the "sci-fi" section, that sort of thing). Drawn by Neal Adams.

Another obscure Marvel character (and another Neal Adams character) is Shadow-Stalker, a Japanese-American who was too short to be considered for Special Forces and went on to become some kind of ninja instead. This was a one-shot character for the b&w magazine Bizarre Adventures, IIRC. The story was totally overshadowed by an "Elektra" story by Frank Miller in the same issue.

[The Other Waldo Pepper]

Rorschach, in WATCHMEN, is 5'6"; he wears a hat and has lifts in his shoes when fighting crime in costume, but also wins a number of brawls against noticeably bigger opponents while in civilian garb; he's said to have possessed "impressive skill in the areas of gymnastics and amateur boxing" even before starting his superhero career, and generously helps along his athletic prowess with a brutal knack for using improvised weapons. In the movie, he's played by Jackie Earle Haley -- who's the same height, maybe even a trifle shorter, and looks it on-screen.

[AnalogSignal]

Sylvester Stallone is often made to look taller than he actually is:
'Expendables' director Sylvester Stallone made 'taller' for movie's poster

[Skald the Rhymer]

Originally Posted by AnalogSignal

Sylvester Stallone is often made to look taller than he actually is:
'Expendables' director Sylvester Stallone made 'taller' for movie's poster

:: shrug ::

The OP specifically says that the thread is about the apparent height of the character on screen, not the actual height of the actor.

[Pyper]

Danger Mouse! Although I don't know if he was unusually short compared to other mice.

[Fried Dough Ho]

Under Dog.

Not only was he short, but he had to take pills to become a Super Hero (what a roll model he was to me as a kid!)

Better living through chemistry!

[JSexton]

Tyrion Lannister from Song of Ice and Fire performs several heroic deeds, and is arguably one of the primary protagonists.