Jerry Maren, the last surviving member of the group of actors who played munchkins in the classic 1939 film, ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ has died at the age of 99.

Boasting of an entertainment career that spanned more than 70 years, the 4 feet, 3 inches    Maren died at a nursing home in San Diego, the United States.

He also played ‘The Hamburglar’ and ‘Mayor McCheese’ in McDonald’s commercials, as well as appearing in scores of films and TV shows.

Maren, who was fond of his role as one of the Lollipop Kids in ‘The Wizard Of Oz’, regularly appeared at film conventions and other events which  honoured the cast over the years.

“I’ve done so many things in show business, but people say: ‘You were in The Wizard of Oz?’ It takes people’s breath away. But then I realized geez, it must have been a hell of a picture, because everyone remembers it everywhere I go,” Maren said during a 2011 interview.

Maren was just one of more than 100 people recruited to play munchkins in the movie but he stood out after ad-libbing a move, handing an oversized lollipop to ‘Dorothy’, played by Judy Garland.

“He was a very sweet person and he was very approachable if you were a fan,” his niece said on Wednesday. “He was the kind of person who would always take time to talk to you,” he added.

Born Gerald Marenghi in Boston on 24 January 1919, Maren was singing and dancing at a show at a Connecticut hotel in 1938 when MGM talent scouts saw the teenager actor and invited him to Hollywood to join the munchkin cast.

Having dreamed since childhood of  being a Hollywood film actor, he accepted and reportedly earned $50 a week for the role, twice what his father was making.

Maren went on to appear in dozens of other films, TV shows and commercials, including Seinfeld and The Twilight Zone.

In 2014, fellow munchkin actor, Ruth Robinson Duccini died and Maren became the group’s final survivor. He and other munchkins attended the unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honouring them in 2007.

Six years later, he placed his handprints in cement outside Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre to promote the release of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ in 3D.