Karl Slover

Karl Slover (September 21, 1918 – November 15, 2011) was a Slovak-born American actor best-known as one of the munchkin actors in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Only three other munchkin performers remained alive at the time of Slover's death. Slover was born as Karl Kosiczky on September 21, 1918 in Prakovce, Slovakia (then Prakfalva, Kingdom of Hungary). Diagnosed at an early age with pituitary dwarfism, Slover was barely two feet tall by his eighth birthday. Dwarfism was not a family trait; his father stood six feet six inches, and his mother was just a few inches shorter. Slover's father went to great lengths to make Slover taller, including taking him to Hungary where doctors fixed stretchers to his arms and legs. When Slover was just nine years old, his father sent him to work for a traveling midget show based out of Berlin, Germany. After working with the show for several years, Slover moved to the United States where he joined another traveling show.