Can anyone shed a light on this conundrum:
Why does it seem that so many ‘Little People’ (dwarfs & midgets) that are seen on television shows and in movies have British accents? Are achrondroplasics more common in Britain?
A related question:
On a recent documentary concerning people of lesser stature, it was mentioned that royal courts often employed such people. Does anyone know of a concerted effort to–for lack of a better word–breed dwarfs?
I haven’t noticed this myself, here in the UK.
I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I think there is a disproportionate number of villains with English accents in Hollywood films.
Perhaps Little People prefer not to appear American (isn’t there a rumour that US Presidents have to be tall?).
Maybe because the MG was a MUCH more popular model than the King … oh, not THAT kind of midget …
I believe Thalidomide might be one culprit. It seems like most of the brittish midgets you see are all about the same age. Thalidomide was used to treat nausia in pregnant women in Brittan from 1959 to 1961, until it was noticed that the birth defect rate had skyrocketed.
http://www.thalidomide.ca/smithell.htm
From that site…
and,
I don’t believe there are more dwarves per capita in the U.K. than in the U.S. You may get the FEELING there are, because of the KIND of movie or TV show in which you’re most likely to see a dwarf. Movies like “Willow,” “Time Bandits,” “The Wizard of Oz,” etc.
Think about it- the movies most likely to hire dwarves are FANTASY films, often based on fairy tales. Dwarves get cast as… well, yes, as dwarves, but also as gnomes, elves, fairies, munchkins, and the like. Such stories are usually based in midieval Europe (not too many kings, queens, wizards or fairy godmothers in the modern USA). Hence, a dwarf with a British accent (Warwick Davis, for instance) has an edge when trying out for a role in a “fairy tale” movie.
Well, for starters I’m pretty sure the British aren’t in the habit of drowning dwarves at birth. This will help keep the numbers up.
Warwick Davis is a pretty busy actor - the Leprauchan series, Willow, Gulliver’s Travels, a Star WarsEwok (the one that jumps up on the rebel planet and yells something like “Eat Yo Mamma!”) and probably a bunch more besides that which makes him seem to be everywhere, and since he has a definite English accent it starts to seem like all the dwarves you see are English. I also think the English tend to give their dwarves more speaking roles - for instance, the dwarf in the Island of Dr. Moreau with Kilmer and Brando has no speaking parts, but I’m pretty sure he’s American.
Actually, I had thought it was the Italians who have the monopoly on midgets:
Billy Barty (William John Bertanzetti)
Angelo Rossitto (50-year+ career. Best known roles: The dwarf who leads the macabre “Gooble Gobble” chant in “Freaks” and “Master” ("the little man with the knowin’s of a lotta things) in “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”
Jery Maren (Gerald Marenghi) (“We represent the Lollipop Guild. . .”)
Phil Fondacaro is the latest “Italian-little-person-at-large.”
Because they are such cleaver little fuckers 
My guess would be the British tradition of Pantomime. Snow White is a popular panto, so there would be an annual demand for dwarf actors. (I vaguely recall news reports of a shortage a few years back, when several productions of Snow White were put on in the same season).
So there could well be a higher proportion of British dwarf actors, and since panto is seasonal, there would be a ready supply.