Billy Barty, the diminutive entertainer who turned the ability to spin on his head into a seven-decade show business career, died Saturday at Glendale Memorial Hospital. He was 76.
The cause of death was heart failure, said his publicist, Bill York. Mr. Barty had been hospitalized for heart problems as well as a lung infection, York said.
In addition to an active career that included work in films, vaudeville, radio, television, videos and nightclubs, the 3-foot-9 Mr. Barty worked to raise public awareness of the problems of people with dwarfism.
He served on both the Los Angeles city and county commissions on disabilities and started two organizations — the Little People of America and the Billy Barty Foundation — that offer support and information on job opportunities, medical care and scholarships to those of short stature.
In October, he received the first Billy Barty humanitarian award, presented at the Long Beach International Film Festival. In September, he participated in the Billy Barty Foundation’s annual golf tournament, which helps fund scholarships and offers help with medical bills associated with dwarfism.
Born William John Bertanzetti in Millsboro, Pa., to full-grown parents, Mr. Barty came to Los Angeles as a toddler with his family after his father found work as a machinist at Columbia studios.
Shortly after arriving, he and his father happened upon a movie crew shooting on a sidewalk near their Hollywood home. It was in that happenstance meeting that the boy performed a trick his father taught him.
He waded into the movie crew and tugged on the trouser leg of director Jules White. He quickly flipped over, stood on his head and began to spin. The maneuver, and his engaging personality, apparently delighted White, who put him in the film Wedded Blisters.
From that day forward, he found steady work. He appeared in comedy shorts with Mack Sennett, led the Hollywood Baby Orchestra made up of child musicians and appeared in dozens of episodes of the Mickey McGuire Comedy shorts, playing the younger brother of star Mickey Rooney.
Mr. Barty also found parts in such Hollywood films as Busby Berkeley’s Footlight Parade and Golddiggers of 1933.
One of his more memorable scenes came in the 1937 film Nothing Sacred, when he bit Frederic March on the leg.
Over the years his film credits would include serious and comedic parts in such films as The Day of the Locust, Rumpelstiltskin, Tough Guys, Under the Rainbow, W.C. Fields and Me and Willow.
The vaudeville circuit beckoned in the 1930s, and he began a seven-year stint with the musical comedy act billed as “Billy Barty and His Sisters.” He played drums and did impressions while his sisters sang.
Mr. Barty tried to break out of show business in the 1940s, returning to Los Angeles to go to college. Hoping to become a sportswriter or broadcaster, he majored in journalism at Los Angeles City College, where he was the sports editor of the college’s newspaper. He continued his education, graduating from what is now California State University, Los Angeles.
But in the 1950s, he was drawn into television. One of the high points of his career came when he joined band leader Spike Jones and His City Slickers. He toured the United States and Australia with Jones and appeared on several of the zany bandleader’s television programs doing comedy bits and impersonations.
He also hosted a children’s television program, Billy Barty’s Big Show, for several years and appeared on such programs as Peter Gunn, Get Smart, Rawhide and Mr. Lucky. In later years, it was not uncommon to see him on Barney Miller, The Waltons, Frasier and The Golden Girls.
He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July 1981.
