Zelda Rubinstein Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
A marvelously quirky and distinctive 4' 3" character actress, with a larger-than-life presence on film and TV, Zelda Rubinstein gave up a long and stable career in the medical field as a lab technician in order to strive for something more self-fulfilling as middle age settled in. At the age of 45, the feisty lady gave up the comfort of a stable ...
[her advice to fellow little people thespians] Become an actor and your world will get much bigger.
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Little people are societally handicapped. They have about two minutes to present themselves as equals -- and if they don't take advantage of that chance, then people fall back on the common assumption that "less' is less.
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[on negative portrayals of little people in movies] It's absolutely despicable. You're not an actor if you're just a person that fits into a cute costume. You're a prop.
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[on her decision to become an actress] I had to do something creative. It was an internal feeling that I was sabotaging myself.
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Fact
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She attended the first AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS Walk in 1985.
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She formed the non-profit Michael Dunn Memorial Repertory Theatre Company in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. It was named after the late Oscar-nominated actor, also a little person and highly successful on film and TV. The membership included actors whose height ranged from 3'8" to 4/6".
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Hospitalized in December, 2009 in Los Angeles after two of her major organs failed.
Attended the University of California and the University of Pittsburgh.
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During the filming of Poltergeist III (1988), she was doing a photo shoot when she paused and lurched. Director Gary Sherman was present and asked her what was wrong, she responded with a comment like "I don't know, was just a jolt. I'm fine." Several minutes later Sherman was pulled aside and told they would have to let Rubenstein go from the film - her mother had just died. After developing the film from the photo shoot, it was discovered that every photo had come out fine, except one, which had an inexplicable cloud of light clouding into the photo from Rubenstein's left, covering half of her with a semi-transparent haze. Rubenstein said she knew the jolt had to have been her mother's passing - she said they always had a particularly strong bond, in a way some identical twins have. Sherman, who had witnessed it, agrees it could not have been anything else. Both Rubenstein and Sherman were already very well aware of the tragic events which had plagued the film series.
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Filmed a scene in Casper (1995) wherein she portrayed her character from Poltergeist (1982) being shot from a chimney while yelling "Don't go into the light!" It didn't make the final cut, however.
$500,000
