# Billy Barty is dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 25, 2000, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151 "2000-12-25T03:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151/1 "2000-12-25T03:54:38Z")
As KROQ radio put it this morning, “Billy Barty has kicked the little bucket.” [CNN article online](http://www.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/24/barty.obit/) They say these things happen in threes. First there was Kirsty MacColl, then Victor Borge, now Billy Barty. _Requiescat in pace_, little guy. ---
**Author:** ![Inky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151/2 "2000-12-25T04:46:08Z")
Mr. Barty will be laid to rest inside a shoebox in the garden (only to be dug-up by the neighbors dog come spring). ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151/3 "2000-12-25T05:43:40Z")
If I remember correctly – and it’s way too late on Christmas Eve to go look this up on IMDB – Barty was in 1935’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in some early work. I also remember him in 1980’s Foul Play with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn and in 1985’s Night Patrol. He got a lot of work over the years, especially since he was such a dimunitive (and obviously typecast) man. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151/4 "2000-12-25T07:02:30Z")
He bestrode the world like a Colossus… Met him once on some kid’s show shoot at the Fort. A very nice man, and I couldn’t help feel sorry that he had to dress up as an elf and run around the freezing woods at his age to earn a living. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151/5 "2000-12-27T12:50:51Z")
Hey, how the heck can you forget _Under the Rainbow_?! He also did a kickass Liberace impression when he worked with Spike Jones back in the 50s. He will be missed. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151/6 "2000-12-27T14:27:57Z")
I was much more upset by Billy Barty’s death than Jason Robards’. Remember Billy as all those evil, satanically grinning babies in the 1930s Busby Berkeley films? More deaths you may have missed: Pauline Curley, 97, silent film star who made several films with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-barty-is-dead/47151/7 "2000-12-27T22:09:16Z")
And don’t forget Dr. Shrinker… the only show where I was cheering for the bad guys (in this case, Billy Barty and that other guy) to win. Well, I still remember DynaGirl getting hypnotized, and I kept hoping the villain would make her get naked. She was such a hottie.