- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAngelo Salvatore Rossitto
- Nicknames
- Little Mo
- Angelino
- Angelo
- Little Moe
- Height0.89 m
- Small in stature at only 2' 11", but big in demand onscreen, the diminutive Angelo Rossitto was one of Hollywood's busiest "small" actors and appeared in over 70 feature films between 1927 until 1987.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska in February 1908, Rossitto first appeared in silent films alongside stars such as Lon Chaney and John Barrymore. In subsequent years Rossitto also regularly popped up alongside Bela Lugosi in villainous roles, and was a stunt double for Shirley Temple.
Angelo portrayed dwarfs, midgets, gnomes and pygmies as well as aliens and monsters in film productions ranging from woeful to wonderful. Probably best remembered as one of the circus members in the highly controversial Tod Browning film Freaks, la monstrueuse parade (1932), as shoeshine man / street informer, "Little Moe", the friend of Robert Blake in the police drama TV series Baretta (1975), and then at age 77 and nearly blind, Rossitto co-starred as the megalomaniacal scientist "Master Blaster" in Mad Max : Au-delà du dôme du tonnerre (1985).
He died in September 1991 from complications during surgery.- IMDb mini biography by: firehouse44@hotmail.com
- SpouseGeorgia A. Buresh(1945 - 1967) (divorced, 2 children)
- Children
- Could never make enough money to live off with his films so he ran a newspaper stand in Hollywood.
- Together with fellow actor Billy Barty, he was one of the founding members of Little People of America.
- Was discovered by John Barrymore.
- Died of complications from surgery in Los Angeles at age 83.
- Appeared regularly as mascot of Los Angeles Thunderbirds roller derby team in the mid and late 1960s.
- I never worked steady. If it wasn't for my newsstand, I would have never made a living. I'm just a ham-and-egg actor.
- [on Bela Lugosi] Bela . . . once told me that he wanted me in all his pictures. And he gave [producer] Sam Katzman instructions to put me in them. Lugosi told me, "Angelo, you are my greatest free advertisement. When they see you, they've got to say to themselves, 'There's the little guy who works with the monster'" . . . Lugosi was a sweetheart of a guy and he loved me.
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