Sad day in the land of Oz.
Actor Karl Slover, who played a Munchkin in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz, died on Tuesday in Dublin, Ga, the Associated Press reports.
At 93 years old, Slover was one of the last surviving cast members in the the beloved film, in which he played the roles of lead trumpeter, a townsman and a soldier.
Slover (who helped welcome Judy Garland's Dorothy into Oz shortly after her tornado-swept house lands in Munchkin City) was one of the smallest Munchkins in the film, with a height of 4-foot-5.
Many decades after the film's first release, Slover enjoyed later-life acclaim at Oz appearances.
"Of the 124 little people, he's one of the handful who got to enjoy this latter-day fame, to have people know who he was and be able to pick him out of the crowd in the movie," author John Fricke, who wrote 100 Years of Oz, told the BBC, adding that Slover had "genuine immortality."
In 2007, Slover was among the seven surviving Munchkin stars on hand for the unveiling of a "Munchkin" star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in L.A.
Flowers were left at the site Tuesday to remember Slover.
