Patty Maloney, the 3-foot-11 powerhouse who lit up classic TV shows and earned cult status in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, has passed away.
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Maloney, who had endured multiple strokes over the years, passed away on April 1 while in hospice care in Winter Park, Florida, her brother Dave Myrabo confirmed.
“For a little person growing up in a big world, she did everything she wanted to do,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
THR highlighted Maloney’s extensive work with 3-foot-10 actor Billy Barty. The duo collaborated on the 1981 feature Under the Rainbow, starring Chevy Chase, as well as on popular television shows including Little House on the Prairie, Charlie’s Angels, and The Love Boat.
However, Maloney found himself at the heart of one of the most notorious moments in Star Wars history: The Star Wars Holiday Special. Airing just before Thanksgiving in 1978 on CBS, this fever dream of a variety show brought Star Wars actors together with… Bea Arthur, Art Carney, and Harvey Korman. Maloney played Chewbacca’s son… Lumpy.
Her wookie get-up “was made of all human hair, which made it very, very warm,” she told a site dedicated to the cult special in 2008. “I remember I was doing something on The Towering Inferno, doing a stunt on that. I had to go over after shooting all day to Stan Winston’s for the face because he did the head. He did the make-up and the electronics in the head.”
Patty Maloney’s Showbiz Career Began in the Circus
Patricia Ann Maloney was born in Perkinsville, New York on March 17, 1936. After losing her father at 7, she was raised in Winter Park by her mother, Kay, and stepfather, Jerry, an accountant. Before attending the University of Florida, Maloney performed with a carnival and the Ringling Bros. Circus.
After losing her husband Joseph Vitek to melanoma in 1968, she returned to performing to cope with her grief. She worked as a puppeteer in Fol-de-Pol (1972). She later appeared alongside Barty in a 1976 pilot for the CBS sitcom Don’t Call Us, about a talent agency.
Maloney and Barty were also frequent collaborators on a 1978-79 NBC variety show hosted by The Bay City Rollers, produced by the Kroffts. They reunited once again for a 1982 CBS special featuring Cheryl Ladd.
She also performed for the Kroffts on the Brady Bunch and Donny & Marie variety shows.
Maloney’s résumé includes films like The Ice Pirates (1984), Swing Shift (1984), and Ernest Saves Christmas (1988). Meanwhile, she appeared in TV series such as Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Rhoda, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Married … With Children, Star Trek: Voyager, Nash Bridges, and My Name Is Earl. She also contributed as a voice actor and operated the Crypt Keeper puppet for HBO’s Tales From the Crypt.
She is survived by her brother, her nieces, Jennifer and Laura, and her brother-in-law, Vic.