Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz and proclaimed in the movie that the Wicked Witch of the East was "really most
sincerely dead", died aged 94.
His carer, Cindy Bosnyak, said Raabe died at a hospital in Orange Park, Florida. He was one of the few surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film.
Ms Bosnyak said Raabe complained of a sore throat at his retirement community before collapsing and going into cardiac arrest. He was taken to Orange Park Medical Centre, where he later died, she said.
Raabe was one of the 124 Munchkins in the film classic and one of only nine who had speaking parts.
He was 22 years old and a show business veteran, earning money for college as a "midget" performer, as they were called then, when the movie was shot in
1938.