Tamara De Treaux

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.

Tamara De Treaux
Born
Tamara Detro

October 21, 1959
DiedNovember 28, 1990 (aged 31)
North Hollywood Medical Center
OccupationActress
Known for

Career

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

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
Year Title Role Notes
1973Don't Be Afraid of the DarkCreatureTV movie[1]
1980Little Miss Marker[16]
1983E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial[4]
1984GhouliesGreedigut[17]
1990RockulaBat Dork[17]
1991The Linguine IncidentCamile[17]
1991Ted & VenusPark Bench Lover(final film role)

References

Citations
  1. "Young Couple Fears House". Florence Morning News. 18 May 1974. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Pixa, Bea (18 July 1979). "Making it Small in Show Business". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Weimers, Leigh (4 July 1979). "Young Actress Ignores Hollywood's Seductive Call". Tallahassee Democrat. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "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.
  5. "The Real E.T." Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 7 July 1982. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Wilmington, Michael (21 January 1985). "'Ghoulies': Flush With Chagrin". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "'Divinas Palabras'". The Los Angeles Times. 13 October 1989. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Adelson 2005, p. 174.
  9. "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)
  10. "Reviews and synopsis of Maybe the Moon". Archived from the original on March 4, 2006. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
  11. Adelson 2005, p. 221.
  12. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About 'E.T.'". News-Press. November 25, 1988. Retrieved 2018-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Call the Courier". The Courier. June 14, 2007. Retrieved 2018-09-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "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.
  15. 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.
  16. Soberanes, Bill (19 July 1982). "A Little Star, Little People". The Petaluma Argus-Courier. Retrieved 2018-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Tamara De Treaux; 'E.T.' Actress Was 31". The New York Times. 3 December 1990. Retrieved 2018-09-06.

Sources


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