Charlie Becker

Charlie Becker visits a US bank with an elephant for advertising purposes (1924)

Karl "Charlie" Becker (born November 24, 1887 in Muschenheim , Hesse , † December 28, 1968 in Elk Grove , California ) was a German - American short - lived actor. He became known to a wide audience through the role of the dwarf mayor in the classic film The Wizard of Oz .

Life

Charlie Becker found his first job as a butcher. His small size of about 1.15 meters turned out to be a problem at work, and he had to endure the ridicule of work colleagues. At the age of 19 Becker became a member of a traveling theater company. He later worked for the Singer Midgets , a troupe of short actors led by the Austrian Leopold von Singer . During World War I , the Singer Midgets played to the United States and stayed there from then on. The group performed there very successfully in vaudeville theaters and Becker cultivated friendships with stars like George Burns and Will Rogers . Becker appeared sporadically in films in the 1920s and 1930s, for example he had a supporting role in the western The Terror of Tiny Town , in which only short actors played.

Charlie Becker played his most famous role as mayor of the diminutive Munchkins in the classic film The Wizard of Oz . Although there were still 123 short actors other than Munchkins to be seen, the role of the mayor is with some text passages the largest of the Munchkin roles. The actor was cast for the role because of his beard, round face and corpulent stature, which, in the opinion of producers, made him look like a stereotypical mayor. Because of his German accent, Becker had to be spoken by Ken Darby in the finished film . On the film set, Becker met his wife Jessie Kelly, who also played a munchkin. They married in 1940, after which Becker largely withdrew from the acting business and only occasionally worked as a double for child actors. Instead, the couple opened their own sausage shop in California.

Charlie Becker died of a heart attack in 1968, a few months after his wife, at the age of 81. Both were buried in Lone Tree Cemetery in Fairview , California . In 2007 the Munchkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , in which seven Munchkin actors who were still alive at the time participated.

Filmography

• 1926: Spangles
• 1937: All Over Town
• 1938: The Terror of Tiny Town
• 1939: The Wizard of Oz (The Wizard of Oz)

literature

• Stephen Cox: The Munchkins of Oz , Cumberland House Publishing 2002.
• Jerry Maren and Stephen Cox: Short and Sweet: The Life and Times of the Lollipop Munchkin , Cumberland House Publishing 2006.
• Meinhardt Raabe and Daniel Kinske: Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road , Back Stage Books 2005.

Web links

• Charlie Becker in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Charlie Becker in theInternet Movie Database(English)