Elaine Merk Binder, one of Wizard of Oz’s last surviving Munchkins, dies age 94

Actress Elaine Merk Binder has died aged 94.

The Wizard of Oz star, who played a Munchkin as a child in the iconic 1939 film, died on Sunday, as confirmed by her daughter Annette Phillips.

In 1938, she auditioned for a role in the classic movie and landed a role as one of eight children joining the Munchkin ensemble.

At just eight years old, she was on the MGM studio lot as she performed song and dance routines in the movie, which starred Judy Garland as Dorothy.

As reported by TMZ, she died on Sunday. No cause of death has been given.

She featured in the early sequence feature the song Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are, where she was in the second small house on the way up the stairs.

Binder can also be seen just before Off To See The Wizard in a matching dark green frock and hat in a group of eight performers in a pavilion towards the back.

She previously recalled how ‘scary’ she found the audition process, which turned to relief when she landed the role.

‘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,’ she said.

‘I was relieved when Bud told the dance director, “She’s OK”. I did not have to perform like the others did. And they selected me as one of the eight who would both dance and sing.

‘We learned later that they had added girls to the Little People because they had the mistaken impression that the Little People were not athletic.’

According to Variety, her final film was Nothing Sacred alongside Carole Lombard and Frederic March.

Paramount later offered her a contract as a teenager, but she turned it down to go to Occidental College, where she graduated in 1951.

She went onto complete her master’s at Cal State Los Angeles two years later, with degrees in music and education, before continuing her education studying computer science and theology.

Binder spent time working as a computer consultant for First Interstate Bank and USC.

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