Michu Meszaros

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Mihály "Michu" Mészáros (born October 1, 1939 in Budapest , Hungary , † June 13, 2016 in Los Angeles , California ) was a short Hungarian actor . He became famous through the sitcom Alf , in which he was in full-body recordings in the costume of the eponymous alien. With a height of 84 cm, he was meanwhile considered the smallest man in the world.

Life

Michu Mészáros was predestined for a life as a stage artist: his two parents, each just over a meter tall, were employed at a theater for small children in Budapest. As the seventh child of his parents in Hungary, he first attended a school specializing in juggling, acrobatics and pantomime. His family toured Eastern Europe as a circus. In 1973 he was discovered by the American Ringling Brothers Circus and traveled with him through the USA and Canada, where he appeared as David, who is fighting against Goliath, among others. In the early 1980s, he finally decided to leave Hungary and emigrate to the USA.

Alf

Mészáros gained greater fame through his participation in the first seasons of the television series Alf , where he was hired for a few full-body shots in which the alien should be shown continuously. However, due to the intense heat generated by the headlights on the set, the tight, uncomfortable costume and the long scenes, Mészáros was rarely used as an Alf double. The last shot of the intro to the series of the first two seasons was used, in which the family poses for a group photo.

All other recordings of Alf were of a doll operated by Paul Fusco and two other assistants, with built-in mechanics for moving the ears, eyebrows or blinking, which represented Alf's upper body. For scenes in which Alf can be seen completely standing or sitting on the couch or bed, a full-body doll with movable feet was used. In such recordings, the puppeteers hid behind objects or could not be seen due to appropriate camera settings and cuts. The difference between the inserts of the Alf doll and the costume worn by Mészáros can easily be determined, as the body proportions of the costume and the doll, especially the head, are slightly different.

Due to the fact that Mészáros always claimed in public that he was the actor of Alf, Warnerbrothers stopped working with him after the first season and only occasionally used old archive recordings for subsequent episodes.

Further career

Mészáros also worked as a photo model as early as 1967. On the cover of the Doors album Strange Days (Photo: Joel Brodsky) he can be seen in the foreground of the freak show shown in Sniffen Court, 152-156 E. 36th Street, New York. Mészáros later had numerous other appearances in various television and film projects and appeared in commercials alongside Michael Jackson and in a music video for Aerosmith . His last film appearance was in the 1993 American horror film Warlock - Satan's Son Returns . He was also a member of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus as "the world's smallest man" at the time. The town of Hawthorne in California set a monument to Mészáros and named the shortest street in the town Michu Lane .

Mihály Mészáros lived in Beverly Hills , California. In 2008 he suffered a stroke . He passed away on June 13, 2016 at the age of 76 after falling into a coma over a week earlier.

Filmography

  • 1978: HR Pufnstuf
  • 1986–1990: Alf (TV series)
  • 1988: Journey back in time (Waxwork)
  • 1988: Big Top Pee-wee
  • 1989: Look who's talking! ( Look Who's Talking , as a stunt double)
  • 1991: My dear John ( Dear John , TV series, episode 3x20)
  • 1993: Freaked
  • 1993: Warlock : The Armageddon
  • 2015: Death to Cupid (short film)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mihaly 'Michu' Meszaros, 'smallest man' - obituary telegraph.co.uk , July 1, 2016, accessed July 2, 2016
  2. ↑ http://www.budapester.hu/2016/06/27/der-mann-hinter-dem-alf-kostum
  3. ↑ Talking Planet; Interview with Tommi Piper
  4. ↑ name = Promipool> Victoria Heider: Paul Fusco and Mihaly Meszaros played ALF . ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Promipool, July 20, 2015, accessed December 14, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.promipool.de
  5. ↑ [1] The world display for Michu Meszaros' death
personal data
SURNAME Meszaros, Michu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meszaros, Mihaly
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest , Hungary
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 2016
Place of death Los Angeles , California