Karl Slover dies at 93; among the last of the Munchkins
By Times staff and wire reports
Nov. 17, 2011 12 AM PT
Print
A dwarf whose father sold him to circus performers, Karl Slover was performing in a vaudeville troupe called the Singer Midgets when he was cast as a Munchkin in the 1939 classic film " The Wizard of Oz.”
The 4-foot, 4-inch Slover, one of the last of the actors who portrayed Munchkins, died Tuesday in a central Georgia hospital of cardiopulmonary arrest. He was 93.
His death was confirmed by Nathan Stanley, a Laurens County, Ga., deputy coroner.
Slover was best known for playing the lead trumpeter in the Munchkins’ band but also appeared as a townsman and soldier in the film, said John Fricke, author of “100 Years of Oz” and other books on the movie and its star, Judy Garland.