Meinhardt Raabe, Munchkin coroner in 'The Wizard of Oz,' dead at 94 (video)

Meinhardt Raabe, Munchkin coroner in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ dead at 94 (video)

Meinhardt Raabe, the Munchkin from the ‘Wizard of Oz’ who proclaimed the wicked witch dead after Dorothy's house annihilates her, has reportedly died of a heart attack. He was 94.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Raabe was considered to be the oldest living actor who played a Munchkin in the 1939 film.

Although he only had a small role in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ he is well remembered as Munchkinland’s coroner, singing the lines “As coroner, I must aver, I thoroughly examined her, And she’s not only merely dead, She’s really, most sincerely dead!”

Raabe was only 23-years-old when he appeared in ‘Oz,’ but two years prior, in 1937, he joined Oscar Mayer as a salesman. He took a leave of absence from his job in 1938 to audition for his role in the film.

Raabe was also a military veteran and in World War II was a pilot in the Civil Air Patrol.

In 2005, Raabe published an autobiography entitled ‘Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road.’ In 2007, he and six other surviving Munchin actors received a Hollywood Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Raabe is survived by his sister Marion Ziegelmann.

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See Raabe as the Munchkinland coroner in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ below: