Jerry Maren dead: Last living munchkin from The Wizard of Oz dies aged 98

Though his career spanned 70 years, he is best-known for his role as the leader of the Lollipop Guild in the classic MGM musical

(Getty)

Jerry Maren, the oldest living actor to have played a munchkin in 1939's The Wizard of Oz, has died at the age of 98.

Enjoying a career in entertainment that spanned over 70 years, Maren was best-known, however, for his role as the leader of the Lollipop Guild in the classic MGM musical. At 4ft 3in, the actor was cast alongside 100 others to make up the film's population of munchkins, though Maren was one of a few who continued to perform after the film's release.

"Making the film was the greatest fun I ever had in my life," he told The Independent in 2009. "It's given me a good life, and I've enjoyed every minute of it."

His later work included doing stunt work for child actors such as Jodie Foster and Ron Howard, alongside roles in the likes of Bewitched, Seinfeld, and The Twilight Zone. He was also a part of several famous ad campaigns: in the 1950s, he worked as a spokesperson for Oscar Meyer, and starred as Mayor McCheese in McDonald's commercials in the 1970s.

Alongside friend and fellow actor Billy Barty, Maren found Little People of America in 1957, a nonprofit organisation that "provides support and information to people of short stature and their families".

Born Gerard Marenghi on 24 January 1920, in Massachusetts, to Italian immigrant parents, Maren was the youngest of 11 children, whose dreams of becoming a baseball player were dashed after his diagnosis of pituitary dwarfism, leading him instead towards a life in show business.

In 2007, Maren was honoured, alongside six other actors who starred as Munchkins, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2013, he put his handprints in cement outside of Hollywood's Chinese Theatre.

Maren passed away on 24 May in a care facility in La Jolla, California, though the news was first reported on Wednesday. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burbank and is interred in the mausoleum at the Court of Remembrance.

His nephew, Lloyd Decker, told the Los Angeles Times that the cause of death was congestive heart failure.

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