Actor Clarence Swensen died 25 February 2009. Born 29 December 1917 in Austin, Texas, he was one of the few remaining actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (Swensen was a Munchkin soldier).
The Associated Press reports that: “Swensen had regularly attended Wizard of Oz festivals. He was among seven of the surviving actors who played the inhabitants of Munchkinland present when the Munchkins received a collective star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.”
In the 1930s, Swensen was part of The Stanley R. Graham All Midget Circus troupe before his brief Hollywood sojourn. His only other film role appears to have been 1938’s The Terror of Tiny Town.
According to The Statesman, after Hollywood, he worked as a civilian radar installation and repair specialist during World War II, and then joined the University of Texas as an electronics technician.
He is survived by his wife, Myrna, three daughters and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.