Betty Ann Bruno, a veteran TV producer and reporter who played a munchkin on The Wizard of Oz, has died. She was 91. The passing was confirmed by Ktvu, the news network where Bruno served as a reporter for over 20 years. According to her family members, she died on Sunday, July 30, in Sonoma, California. “I am so sorry to have to tell you Betty Ann’s heart left us today,” her husband Craig Scheiner posted on Facebook. “We were at the kanikapila in Sonoma and she had just finished dancing Pua Mana. She developed a sudden, splitting head ache and I drove her to Emergency. She made it to the from desk and collapsed on the floor with a massive heart attack. We were together 46 years. I am devastated.” Bruno was born on October 1, 1931, in Wahiawa, Hawaii, but grew up in Hollywood, California. She started her career as a child actress,...
- 8/1/2023
- TV Insider
Betty Ann Bruno, Bay Area local news reporter and a Munchkin in the classic film “The Wizard of Oz,” has died at the age of 91, according to San Francisco Fox affiliate Ktvu.
Bruno was born on in Hawaii but grew up in Hollywood, where she got bit roles in films like John Ford’s “The Hurricane” as a young child. At the age of 7, she was one of the children cast alongside the 124 little people picked to play the Munchkins in “The Wizard of Oz,” and was one of the last surviving members of the production.
After graduating from Stanford, Bruno got her start in broadcast journalism as a political talk show producer before stepping in front of the camera as a general assignment reporter for Ktvu in the 1970s.
She would become a mainstay of the local network news team over the next two decades and win three Emmys for her work,...
Bruno was born on in Hawaii but grew up in Hollywood, where she got bit roles in films like John Ford’s “The Hurricane” as a young child. At the age of 7, she was one of the children cast alongside the 124 little people picked to play the Munchkins in “The Wizard of Oz,” and was one of the last surviving members of the production.
After graduating from Stanford, Bruno got her start in broadcast journalism as a political talk show producer before stepping in front of the camera as a general assignment reporter for Ktvu in the 1970s.
She would become a mainstay of the local network news team over the next two decades and win three Emmys for her work,...
- 7/31/2023
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
Betty Ann Bruno, who as a child played a munchkin in the 1939 classic The Wizard Of Oz and went on to become a TV producer and longtime reporter in the San Francisco Bay area, died Sunday in Sonoma, CA, her family said. She was 91. No cause of death was given.
Born Betty Ann Ka’ihilani in 1931 in Chicago, Bruno was 7 when she was cast with about a dozen other children of average height as Munchkins opposite the 100-plus adult little people who played the denizens of Munchkinland. Victor Fleming’s beloved film starring Judy Garland was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture and won for Best Song (“Over the Rainbow”) and Best Score.
Among only a handful of surviving Munchkin actors, Bruno published a book called The Munchkin Diaries: My Personal Yellow Brick Road in 2020.
”The Wizard of Oz’ producer Mervyn LeRoy, star Judy Garland and director Victor Fleming...
Born Betty Ann Ka’ihilani in 1931 in Chicago, Bruno was 7 when she was cast with about a dozen other children of average height as Munchkins opposite the 100-plus adult little people who played the denizens of Munchkinland. Victor Fleming’s beloved film starring Judy Garland was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture and won for Best Song (“Over the Rainbow”) and Best Score.
Among only a handful of surviving Munchkin actors, Bruno published a book called The Munchkin Diaries: My Personal Yellow Brick Road in 2020.
”The Wizard of Oz’ producer Mervyn LeRoy, star Judy Garland and director Victor Fleming...
- 7/31/2023
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
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