Gossip & Rumors
Munchkin Suicide -- FALSE!

No little people were injured during the making of "The Wizard of Oz." The Wicked Witch, Margaret Hamilton, was badly burned when her flammable green makeup ignited, and the originally cast Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, was sickened by silver makeup, but that's it for mishaps in Oz. What people claimed was a suicide caught on film was actually a large bird that was roaming around the set for the talking forest scene. You remember the scene where they discover the Tin Man rusted into silence? To make the indoor set appear more realistic, the Los Angeles Zoo loaned MGM several birds in various sizes. That's all it was. It was a giant bird but no one was hung.
Wizard of Oz

The Death Of Urkel

Legend is that Jaleel White, who played Urkel on "Family Matters" committed suicide.
Jaleel White : click to link

Tags: jaleel white, JaleelWhite, suicide, urban legend, UrbanLegend

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Reader Comments

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1. You stated that the silver makeup made the original Tin Man Buddy Ebsen sick. It's my understanding that the original Tin Man was played by Jack Haley, not Buddy Ebsen

Posted at 12:24PM on Dec 17th 2006 by shelly

2. Buddy Ebsen was the original Tin Man. He got sick from the make up and was replaced by Jack Haley. They are correct.

Posted at 12:46PM on Dec 17th 2006 by cynthe Renfrew

3. Yeah, and Buddy Epson's voice is still on the musical soundtrack for the film.

Posted at 3:45PM on Dec 17th 2006 by J

4. Buddy Ebsens' voice is not heard on the soundtrak - the tinmans' voice is Haleys'....completely different tones and quality......

Posted at 6:58PM on Dec 17th 2006 by John David Yarbrough

5. Wow! Im having trouble seeing that image of the large bird they are referring to.

Posted at 6:44PM on Dec 17th 2006 by Esmy

6. Oh never mind! This isn't the actual picture of the movie where they saw the 'hanging man'

Posted at 6:56PM on Dec 17th 2006 by Esmy

7. this isn't the right scene. the scene where you can see a munchkin "swaying from side" is the one where they're all together after she kills the which. not sayng it's true but it's definitly more plausible than what's obviously a bird. you can find it on youtube.

Posted at 9:28PM on Dec 20th 2006 by true

8. I'm feeling the need to play the role of the Reluctant Grammarian.

The TMZ writer made two serious grammatical mistakes in this story:

1) When someone dies by hanging, it's called being "hanged," not "hung."
2) The Los Angeles Zoo "lent" the birds, not "loaned."

Perhaps the proofer was on break when this article was written...

Posted at 11:54AM on Dec 25th 2006 by Randy

9. Randy:

You're spoiling all the fun! Hung means something entirely different and is so funny! For all we know, the Munchkin really was hung, eh? As for "hung himself," yeah, well I've gotten lots of spam offering to allow me to do just that!

Posted at 5:17PM on Dec 25th 2006 by Two Dog

10. OH COME ON!!! that dose not look a bit like a Munchkin. You can tell its a bird. Look watch the sceen again but focuse your attention on the so called ''hanging'' not the actors and you will see it eating and spreding his wings when the actors pass by

Posted at 2:12PM on Jan 25th 2007 by Andres Arroyo