Jerry Maren, the last surviving Munchkin from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” and the one who memorably welcomed Dorothy to Munchkinland, died May 24 at a San Diego nursing home. He was 98.
His niece Stacy Michelle Barrington confirmed the death but did not provide a cause.
In an entertainment career that spanned more than 70 years, he portrayed the Hamburglar and Mayor McCheese in McDonald’s commercials, appeared in scores of films and TV shows, and made personal appearances as Little Oscar for Oscar Mayer hot dogs.
But it was his role as a member of the Lollipop Guild in “The Wizard of Oz” that provided his greatest renown. He would show up regularly at film conventions, Munchkin gatherings and other events honoring the cast over the years.
“I’ve done so many things in show business, but people say, ‘You were in “The Wizard of Oz?’” It takes people’s breath away,” he told writer Paul Zollo during a 2011 interview for the publication North Hollywood Patch.
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Mr. Maren, who stood 4-feet-3, was one of more than 100 little people recruited to play Munchkins in the movie.
He stood out from almost all the others, however, as a Lollipop Guild member who sang and danced his way to front and center to the film’s star, Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, and then, with a flourish, handed her an enormous lollipop.
Mr. Maren said he ad-libbed that lollipop handoff in an early take and the director liked it so much he told him to keep doing it.
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Just before the presentation, he danced between two other Lollipop Munchkins as they moved toward Garland singing: “We represent the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild. And in the name of the Lollipop Guild, we wish to welcome you to Munchkinland.”
More than half a century later he would ad-lib the song’s lyrics, concluding, “We wish to welcome you to Smithsonian Institute,” as he helped lead the unveiling of a 2006 exhibition of “Oz” memorabilia at Washington’s Smithsonian Institution.
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Mr. Maren was born Gerald Marenghi in Boston on Jan. 24, 1920. His parents were Italian immigrants, and his father worked in a shoe factory. He was singing and dancing in a show at a Connecticut hotel in 1938 when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scouts saw the diminutive teenage actor and invited him to Hollywood to join the Munchkin cast.
He would later recall being paid $50 a week for the role, twice what his father was making, but far less than the dog playing Toto. “The dog had a better agent,” Mr. Maren quipped.
Share this articleShareHe also disputed the oft-repeated characterizations of the other Munchkins as drunken hooligans on the set. “There was a couple, just a couple guys,” he told the Indianapolis Star. “They drank a little. Two guys. They were from Germany. Nice guys, but they drank beer. You know, Germany. Beer was like water to those guys.”
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Mr. Maren went on to appear in dozens of other films, TV shows (including “Bewitched” and “Seinfeld”) and commercials. His movies included “Under the Rainbow,” the 1981 sendup of the making of “The Wizard of Oz.”
He attended Munchkin reunion gatherings frequently, and with the 2014 death of fellow Munchkin Ruth Robinson Duccini he became the group’s final survivor. In 2007, he and other Munchkins attended the unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring them.
His wife, Elizabeth Barrington Maren, died in 2011. The couple had no children.
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