Meinhardt Raabe 1915-2010
Meinhardt Raabe, the oldest living Munchkin from the 1939 production of “The Wizard of Oz” has died at the age of 94 in Orange Park, Florida. He was 23-years-old when he landed the role of the Munchkinland coroner.
He graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1937 and landed a job as a spokesman for Oscar Mayer. The 4’7″ employee traveled around the Midwest in the first Wienermobile and was billed as “Little Oscar, World’s Smallest Chef”. He worked 30 years for the company, taking a short leave of absence to appear in “The Wizard of Oz”.
The Munchkin actors, dressed in their costumes, were honored in November 2007 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – check it out here.
The most memorable lines delivered by the coroner proclaimed the death of the Wicked Witch of the East in song: “As coroner I must aver – I thoroughly examined her – and she’s not only merely dead – she’s really most sincerely dead!”
See photos and video clip below: