Josefine Balluck

Who was Josefine Balluck?

Josefine Balluck was an Austrian actress with dwarfism, best known for her role as one of the Munchkins in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Her dwarf brother Franz Balluck also appeared as a Munchkin in that same film. Coincidentally, their Oz co-star Jakob "Jackie" Gerlich was also originally from Vienna.

While Balluck's role in Oz was uncredited, subsequent books list her as a Munchkin actor. Leopold von Singer signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to provide 124 proportionately-sized little people to play Munchkins in Oz. Gerlich was recruited because of her dwarfism and was paid $125 a week for her work.

Balluck died in 1984.

In 2007, all 124 Munchkin actors in Oz were honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For Balluck this was a posthumous honor. Seven surviving Munchkin actors attended the ceremony, including Mickey Carroll, Ruth Duccini, Jerry Maren, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe, Karl Slover and Clarence Swensen.