Cartilage-hair hypoplasia

ONE OF the most celebrated dwarfs in show business history, the diminutive Billy Barty, 3ft 9in tall, began his career at the age of three and remained active for over 70 years as an actor, comic, impressionist and activist.

Engagingly energetic and twinkle-eyed, he played Mickey Rooney's kid brother in the "Mickey McGuire" series of two-reeler comedy shorts in the late Twenties and early Thirties, and in a career embracing screen, stage, television and vaudeville his work ranged from Busby Berkeley musicals to Shakespeare. Barty was also a vociferous champion of causes to advance the rights of persons of tiny stature, founding Little People of America in 1957 and the Billy Barty Foundation in 1975. "The name of my condition is Cartilage Hair Syndrome Hypoplasia," he stated, "but you can just call me Billy."

Born William John Bertanzetti to average size parents in 1924 in Millsboro, Pennsylvania, he was taken to Hollywood as an infant when his father found work as a machinist at Columbia Studios. One day they came across a film unit shooting in the street. Barty attracted the attention of the unit's director, Jules White, by tugging on his trouser leg, then performed a trick his father had taught him, standing on his head and spinning around. White was impressed by both the trick and Barty's personality and cast him in the film Wedded Blisters (1927). Barty was soon in great demand, appearing in Mack Sennett shorts, leading the Hollywood Baby Orchestra, composed of child musicians, and playing in dozens of "Mickey McGuire" comedy shorts.

The legendary dance director Busby Berkeley gave him parts in three of the spectacular musical numbers that were his trademark. In Gold Diggers of 1933, he was the mischievous imp who climbs out of his pram to ogle the girls in the number "Pettin' in the Park" and, when they put on protective tin-plated clothing, is at the ready with a tin-opener. In Footlight Parade he was up to mischief again prowling the corridors of the "Hollywood Hotel", and in Roman Scandals he represented a diminutive Eddie Cantor after Cantor had been shrunk in a steam room during the number "Keep Young and Beautiful".

He also played a woodland sprite in Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle's imaginative version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), but in the late Thirties concentrated on vaudeville, touring for seven years with an act called Billy Barty and his Sisters, in which he played the drums and did impressions while his sisters sang.

In the early Forties he decided to leave show business, enrolling at the Los Angeles City College, where he majored in journalism with the hope of becoming a sports writer or broadcaster. Though he graduated from LA State University, he was drawn back into show business with the rise of television and in the Fifties joined the zany comedy band Spike Jones and his City Slickers, touring with them throughout the United States and Australia and appearing with them on several television shows.

One of his most memorable routines was an impression of Liberace, in which Barty wore a silver wig and high-topped tennis shoes, played a miniature piano and sang "I'm In The Mood For Love" as shaving cream bubbled from a candelabra. In the Sixties he had his own television show for children, Billy Barty's Big Show, and he later acted in such series as Peter Gunn, Rawhide, The Waltons and Golden Girls, and recently featured in an episode of Frasier.

His later film roles included a suspected stalker in Foul Play (1978), a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a German spy in Under the Rainbow (1981), and a wizard in Willow (1988). One of his favourite roles was that of the irascible dwarf in the cockfight episode of Day of the Locust (1975).

Active in the cause of little people (the term he preferred), in 1957 he founded Little People of America, an advocacy group which aims to improve the quality of life for others with dwarfism, and in 1975 he created the Billy Barty Foundation. Both organisations offer support and information on job opportunities, medical care and scholarships. Last year he told a journalist, "The general public thinks all little people are in circuses or sideshows. We have doctors, nurses, just about every field covered."

Tom Vallance

William John Bertanzetti (Billy Barty), actor: born Millsboro, Pennsylvania 25 October 1924; married (one son, one daughter); died Glendale, California 23 December 2000.

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