‘The Wizard Of Oz’s Betty Ann Bruno Dead at 91
Betty Ann Bruno, a TV reporter who played a munchkin as a child in The Wizard of Oz, has died. She was 91.
The news of her passing was confirmed by her family to KTVU, the network that she was an investigative reporter for. No cause of death has been shared.
Bruno was born on October 1, 1931 in Wahiawa, Hawaii, but was raised in California. She started her career as a child star when she received her first role in John Ford's 1937 film, The Hurricane. Two years later, at seven years old, she appeared in The Wizard of Oz as one of the munchkins who welcomes Dorothy.
She went on to work at San Francisco's KTVU-Channel 2 for over 20 years, retiring in 1992. She even found love at the TV station, marrying KTVU photographer Craig Schneider; the couple had three children. Her work at KTVU earned her three Emmys.
Bruno released her memoir The Munchkin Diary: My Personal Yellow Brick Road in 2020, detailing her experience on set. She also shared memories from being in the classic film with The New York Post in 2018.
"When we walked onto the set, I had the same reaction that Dorothy has in the movie. It was the Depression. There was no Disneyland then, so to walk out onto the set and see those bright colors was like being transported to heaven," she recalled.
The former actress noted that as one of the average-sized children featured as munchkins in the movie, she didn't get as much screen time as her co-stars. "We were always in the background. They didn't want to see children's faces but they wanted our little bodies," she said.
