Betty Ann Bruno, Bay Area local news reporter and a Munchkin in the classic film “The Wizard of Oz,” has died at the age of 91, according to San Francisco Fox affiliate KTVU.
Bruno was born on in Hawaii but grew up in Hollywood, where she got bit roles in films like John Ford’s “The Hurricane” as a young child. At the age of 7, she was one of the children cast alongside the 124 little people picked to play the Munchkins in “The Wizard of Oz,” and was one of the last surviving members of the production.
After graduating from Stanford, Bruno got her start in broadcast journalism as a political talk show producer before stepping in front of the camera as a general assignment reporter for KTVU in the 1970s.
She would become a mainstay of the local network news team over the next two decades and win three Emmys for her work, which included covering the 1991 Oakland Hills fire that killed 25 people and destroyed over 3,200 homes, including her own.
After retiring in the 1990s, Bruno moved to Sonoma, California, and became a hula teacher. Her past with “Wizard of Oz” led to her appearing on an episode of the game show “To Tell the Truth” in 2002 and became the basis for her 2020 autobiography “The Munchkin Diary: My Personal Yellow Brick Road.”
“Other reporters would try to get those same people they would say, ‘No, no, no way.’ Betty Ann was always able to get the interview,” said retired reporter Rob Roth in an interview with KTVU. “She really did care about the community, cared about reporting, she was just a real treasure, a joy to know.”
Bruno is survived by her husband Craig, a former KTVU photographer, and her three sons.
