'Wizard of Oz' actor Meinhardt Raabe died Friday morning in Orange Park, Florida of a presumed heart attack, the NY Times has confirmed. He was 94.
According to his caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, Raabe was taken to a nearby hospital after he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest at the Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, Florida, where he had lived since 1986. Prior to collapsing, Raabe complained of having a sore throat.
Raabe was best known for his uncredited, 13-second role in the Oscar-winning classic, during which he uttered the famous lines "As coroner, I must aver, I thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead, She's really most sincerely dead." He was one of the last surviving Munchkins, according to the report.
Though the 'Wizard of Oz' marked his only appearance on the big screen, Raebe, who was 4 feet 7 inches at his tallest, had a long and successful career, including an almost 30-year stint as Little Oscar, mascot of Oscar Mayer meats.
A University of Wisconsin graduate and World War II veteran, Raebe was married to the late Marie Hartline, who died in 1997. He is survived by his sister, Marion Ziegelmann.
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