VERNE TROYER

22 Apr

(1 January 1969 - 21 April 2018)

The American actor and stuntman Verne Troyer, who has died aged 49, possibly from suicide, was, even at just 32 inches tall, an iconic figure. He appeared in films for some twenty years in parts that called for his lack of stature, beginning in 1996 with Pinocchio’s Revenge and Jingle All the Way. He was also in Men in Black, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Mighty Joe, etc, but really came to fame in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, playing Mini-Me, a pint-sized version of Mike Myers’ title character. He appeared in video shorts, on television and in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (as Griphook), and returned for Austin Powers in Goldmember. More TV followed as well as the films Postal, College, The Love Guru, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Keith Lemon: The Movie, Convenience and Gnome Alone. His last film is the still to be completed Hipsters, Gangsters, Aliens and Geeks with Troyer as the Emperor Beezel-Chugg, but it will be Mini-Me for which he will be remembered.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

VERNE TROYER

MICHAEL ANDERSON

JOHN STRIDE