Elaine Merk Binder, one of the last surviving actors who played one of the beloved Munchkins in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz,” has died at age 94, Variety reported.
Binder was 8 years old when she filmed her scenes on the MGM lot after auditioning for the film in 1938. She was selected as one of eight children who would dance and sing as part of the Munchkin ensemble.
“I tried out for the ‘Wizard of Oz’ Munchkins. For me it was scary. It was my first big call for girls from a major studio,” Binder previously recalled in a 2024 documentary entitled “Mysteries of Oz.”
“I was relieved when Bud told the dance director, ‘She’s O.K.’ I did not have to perform like the others did,” she said. “And they selected me as one of the eight who would both dance and sing. We learned later that