The actor Verne Troyer has died, according to a statement posted to his social media pages on Saturday. He was 49.
Verne Troyer: a cult star who sustained a career with dignity and good humour | Peter Bradshaw Read more
Troyer, who was 2ft 8in tall, found fame in Mike Myers’ Austin Powers spy spoof movies as Mini-Me, a clone of the villain Dr Evil. The last Austin Powers film, Goldmember, was released in 2002.
Other roles included Griphook in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), Coach Punch Cherkov in Myers’ The Love Guru (2008) and Percy in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Troyer also appeared in Madonna’s video for her 1999 song Beautiful Stranger and made appearances on reality TV.
Myers said on Saturday: “Verne was the consummate professional and a beacon of positivity for those of us who had the honour of working with him. It is a sad day, but I hope he is in a better place. He will be greatly missed.”
Having experienced struggles with alcoholism, Troyer was admitted to hospital earlier this month. His family announced his death in a statement posted to Facebook and Instagram.
“It is with great sadness and incredibly heavy hearts to write that Verne passed away today,” the statement said.
“Verne was an extremely caring individual. He wanted to make everyone smile, be happy, and laugh. Anybody in need, he would help to any extent possible. Verne hoped he made a positive change with the platform he had and worked towards spreading that message everyday.”
The actor Marlee Matlin tweeted that Troyer had “a lovely smile with a caring and big heart, he helped raise money [for Starkey Hearing Foundation] for free hearing aids for deaf and hard of hearing people. RIP.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Troyer with Mike Myers as Dr Evil in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Photograph: New Line/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Baywatch star Carmen Electra shared a snap of the two of them on Instagram in which she can be seen holding Troyer in her arms. She simply posted “R.I.P Verne Troyer” along with the image.
The Troyer family statement added that “Verne was also a fighter when it came to his own battles. Over the years he’s struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much.
“During this recent time of adversity he was baptized while surrounded by his family. The family appreciates that they have this time to grieve privately.”
In 2015, he told the Guardian he “grew up Amish, but my parents left the religion when I was a child”.
He also said: “All my family is average-sized, apart from me. I didn’t really think about my size until I got older, a few years before high school. It had never really fazed me that much.”
His parents, he said, taught him “to be optimistic and independent. They made me feel that I could do anything I set my mind to, which has really helped me. They didn’t make allowances for me because of my height. I had to do everything my brother and sister had to do.”
Troyer’s family statement did not give a cause of death but it added: “Depression and suicide are very serious issues. You never know what kind of battle someone is going through inside. Be kind to one another. And always know, it’s never too late to reach out to someone for help.”
Verne Troyer, actor who was Mini-Me in Austin Powers films, dies at 49 Read more
“I shall call him … Mini-Me!” This was how Verne Troyer was brought on to the screen, and into the world of cult stardom: a world which was part cruel, part affectionate. It was in the 1999 movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Mike Myers’s Dr Evil has just been cloned, and does a convulsive double-take on realising that his double is one-eighth his size. Two-foot-eight Troyer comes on in the Bond-villain quasi-Nehru jacket and impassively does the signature little finger to the lips move – worryingly like a precocious infant. An almost-star was born, although Troyer had begun his screen career in 1994 in the movie Baby’s Day Out when he had been the stunt double for a baby. Troyer repeated the Mini-Me role in the Austin Powers sequel Goldmember, had a small part as a goblin in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – and with dignity and good humour sustained a career in reality television and the professional celebrity industry for almost 20 years.
This career spanned a period in which people of restricted height – Troyer had achondroplasia dwarfism – were starting to be regarded differently in cinema and in pop culture. People with dwarfism had always been treated exploitatively, and cinema from its earliest days adopted the robust circus tradition of using them brashly, unsentimentally, and expected them to behave in the same matter-of-fact way. And for many that was at least better than condescending pity. Tales of the Munchkin actors’ drunken behaviour on the set of The Wizard of Oz became legendary.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Troyer, left, as Griphook in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Kenny Baker found his weird vocation in playing R2D2 in Star Wars. Felix Silla was an Italian circus clown who had work in comedies and scary movies (an habitual generic combination for actors with dwarfism). Zelda Rubinstein made an impression in Chevy Chase’s 1980 comedy Under the Rainbow, a 30s-period comedy, set at the time of the filming of The Wizard of Oz. British actor David Rappaport had a very similar career, but was given a chance to shine more than usual in Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981). But it was Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones star, who has really escaped the patronising prejudice in a very contemporary way. He has stated that “dwarfs are still the butt of jokes. It’s one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice.” It was a bigotry that his career has repudiated, although Troyer arguably couldn’t match Dinklage’s acting talent.
Verne Troyer: a life in pictures Read more
In a way, Warwick Davis’s career is closer to Troyer’s: he acted in the first Star Wars prequel Phantom Menace and, ironically, replaced him in the Harry Potter franchise, but it was archly playing himself in Ricky Gervais’s TV comedy Extras that made Davis’ name. Davis challenged bigotry with confidence and black comedy, breaking the hush of liberal concern, and that was the same cheerful self-awareness that Troyer tapped into. There is an ongoing debate about the whole idea of “mini-me”: the idea that performers with dwarfism are just being demeaningly represented as comic or horrific miniatures. But Troyer at any rate tackled and subverted that idea — with confidence, with comic gusto and with charm.
(CNN) Verne Troyer, who played Mini-Me in two of the Austin Powers comedy films, has died at the age of 49, according to statements posted to his social media accounts Saturday.
No cause of death was immediately released.
Troyer was hospitalized earlier this month after emergency responders in Los Angeles went to his home, according to media reports.
"Verne was an extremely caring individual. He wanted to make everyone smile, be happy, and laugh," a statement posted to his social media said. "Anybody in need, he would help to any extent possible. Verne hoped he made a positive change with the platform he had and worked towards spreading that message every day."
Troyer, who was reportedly 2 feet, 8 inches tall, joked with CNN's Wolf Blitzer in 2002 that after gaining fame as Mini-Me he would go out in public with a hat and sunglasses on, "but it just doesn't seem to work."
He added: "I'm still trying to get used to it. I'm just adjusting day by day. So you know, it's -- I don't know. It's -- I'm just enjoying it and taking it one step at a time."
According to the Internet Movie Database, Troyer was in 58 movies and television shows.
He played Mini-Me, the diminutive clone of Mike Myers' Dr. Evil, in "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" and "Austin Powers in Goldmember."
Myers, in a statement issued Saturday, called Troyer the "consummate professional and a beacon of positivity."
"It is a sad day, but I hope he is in a better place. He will be greatly missed," Myers said.
The role grew
Troyer told Oprah Winfrey in 2016 that the character wasn't initially supposed to be in the film much.
"I had no idea how famous this character was going to be," he said. "Once we started rehearsal, Mike (Myers) kept adding more parts."
Mini-Me died in an early version of the "Spy Who Shagged Me" but a crowd at a test screening became upset, Troyer said, so they reshot some scenes.
Mini-Me didn't talk during the movies but sometimes let out a squeal or mimicked what Dr. Evil was doing.
Battled adversity
The statement announcing his death said he had undergone a "recent time of adversity."
"Verne was also a fighter when it came to his own battles," the statement added. "Over the years he's struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much."
The statement told people to be kind.
"Depression and suicide are very serious issues. You never know what kind of battle someone is going through inside," it said. "And always know, it's never too late to reach out to someone for help."
In April 2017, Troyer announced on Facebook that he was being treated for alcohol addiction, something he had fought in the past.
Started as a baby's stunt double
Troyer once told British talk show host Jonathan Ross that he had a rare type of dwarfism called cartilage-hair hypoplasia
He told Ross he used his height to his advantage. He broke into entertainment as the stunt double for a 9-month-old baby in the 1994 film "Baby's Day Out."
He also appeared as Mini-Me in music videos.
Rapper Ludacris posted a photo to Instagram, writing: "R.I.P. Verne Troyer aka Mini Me. You made it to that #1 Spot Glad we got to make history together. #goontosoon #love."
Gonna miss my lil buddy! @VerneTroyer RIP homie the whole world's gonna miss you! pic.twitter.com/8iw721BhD0 — T❍mmy L33 (@MrTommyLand) April 21, 2018
Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee tweeted: "Gonna miss my lil buddy! @VerneTroyer RIP homie the whole world's gonna miss you!"
Troyer told CNN that he grew used to being a short person in a tall world.
"Well, for me, I guess, I don't know what it's like to be tall," he said. "So I grew up like this and you know, you just adapt to every situation."
TRIBUNNEWS.COM - Kabar duka kembali melanda industri hiburan di Amerika Serikat.
Verne Troyer, aktor mungil yang terkenal melalui perannya sebagai Mini-Me di serial film Austin Powers meninggal dunia.
"Dengan kesedihan mendalam kami mengabarkan bahwa Verne meninggal dunia hari ini," kata keluarga melalui keterangan tertulis.
"Verne adalah sosok yang penuh perhatian. Dia ingin membuat orang lain tersenyum, bergembira, dan tertawa. Dia akan berusaha sekuat mungkin menolong orang yang membutuhkan," demikian pernyataan keluarga.
Keluarga menambahkan sepanjang hidupnya Troyer berharap bisa memberi pengaruh positif dan inspirasi kepada orang lain.
"Di lokasi shooting film atau televisi, iklan, di comic con ataupun acara pribadi, hingga di kanal YouTube-nya, dia menunjukkan kemampuannya kepada orang lain," kata keluarga.
Menurut keluarga, orangtua Verne Troyer kerap khawatir karena kekurangan fisik putranya.
"Verne juga pejuang dalam mengatasi masalahnya. Bertahun-tahun ia berjuang dan menang, berjuang dan menang, dan terus berjuang. Sayangnya, kali ini sudah tak tertahankan," menurut keluarga.
Sejauh ini belum ada keterangan tentang penyebab kematian Troyer. Namun pada 2 April lalu, Troyer dilarikan ke rumah sakit atas dugaan keracunan.
