Tamara De Treaux
Tamara De Treaux | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tamara Detro October 21, 1959 |
| Died | November 28, 1990 (aged 31) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Known for | |
Tamara Detro (October 21, 1959 – November 28, 1990), known by the stage name Tamara De Treaux, was an American stage and screen actress. She was best known for her role in film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She stood 31 inches tall and had dwarfism.
Career
[edit]De Treaux played one of the three creatures in John Newland's horror TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), which was her first film role.[1][2] Making the prosthetics for De Treaux to play a "gnome-like creature" took some special adaptations, according to John Chambers.[1] After Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, she played on stage in the Dickens Faire and also did commercials.[2] For Little Miss Marker (1980), she worked as a stand-in for the child actress.[3] De Treaux later worked with a singing group in San Francisco called the Medflies in 1980.[4] At one of the Medflies' performance in Los Angeles, she was noticed by Steven Spielberg.[4] She became one of the performers who played E.T. in Spielberg's film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).[5] De Treaux's work in Ghoulies (1985) was praised by Michael Wilmington in the Los Angeles Times who hated the movie, but enjoyed her performance.[6]
De Treaux went back to the stage, appearing in Divinas Palabras by Ramón del Valle-Inclán in 1989 in Los Angeles in a performance staged by The Bilingual Foundation for the Arts.[7] De Treaux was one of the models in Daphne and Apollo, Los Angeles (1990), photographed by Joel Peter Witkin.[8]
She was a friend of the American writer Armistead Maupin. Her diaries supplied the main influence for the heroine "Cadence Roth" in his novel Maybe the Moon.[9][10]
Personal life
[edit]De Treaux stood at 31 inches tall and had dwarfism.[11][8] She was the verified shortest ever actress.[12][13][14] She first became interested in acting at age 13.[2]
She was a 1978 graduate of San Leandro High School, San Leandro, California. De Treaux made many of her own clothes.[2]
In 1990, she died at age 31 from respiratory and heart problems at the North Hollywood Medical Center and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).[15]
Filmography
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Don't Be Afraid of the Dark | Creature | TV movie[1] |
| 1980 | Little Miss Marker | [16] | |
| 1983 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | [4] | |
| 1984 | Ghoulies | Greedigut | [17] |
| 1990 | Rockula | Bat Dork | [17] |
| 1991 | The Linguine Incident | Camile | [17] |
| 1991 | Ted & Venus | Park Bench Lover | (final film role) |
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c "Young Couple Fears House". Florence Morning News. 18 May 1974. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Pixa, Bea (18 July 1979). "Making it Small in Show Business". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Weimers, Leigh (4 July 1979). "Young Actress Ignores Hollywood's Seductive Call". Tallahassee Democrat. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "Tamara De Treaux; actress played 'E.T.'". Chicago Sun-Times. 2 December 1990. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2018 – via HighBeam Research.
- ^ "The Real E.T." Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 7 July 1982. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wilmington, Michael (21 January 1985). "'Ghoulies': Flush With Chagrin". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "'Divinas Palabras'". The Los Angeles Times. 13 October 1989. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Adelson 2005, p. 174.
- ^ "Behind the scenes: THE OUTSIDER". Archived from the original on March 4, 2006. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - San Francisco Focus Magazine]; interview with Maupin about his friendship with Tamara De Treaux (October 1992) - ^ "Reviews and synopsis of Maybe the Moon". Archived from the original on March 4, 2006. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
- ^ Adelson 2005, p. 221.
- ^ "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About 'E.T.'". News-Press. November 25, 1988. Retrieved 2018-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Call the Courier". The Courier. June 14, 2007. Retrieved 2018-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Julia Roberts, Master P and the New York Yankees Star in Guinness World Records 2002". The News-Star. 7 November 2001. Retrieved 2018-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 12011). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
- ^ Soberanes, Bill (19 July 1982). "A Little Star, Little People". The Petaluma Argus-Courier. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "Tamara De Treaux; 'E.T.' Actress Was 31". The New York Times. 3 December 1990. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
Sources
[edit]- Adelson, Betty M. (2005). The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey from Public Curiosity Toward Social Liberation. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. p. 221. ISBN 9780813535487.
External links
[edit]
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