Deborah Carrington, Stuntwoman and ‘Total Recall’ Actress, Dies at 58

Deborah Carrington, an actress and stuntwoman who appeared in “Men in Black” and “Total Recall,” died on March 23 at her parents’ home in Pleasanton, Calif. She was 58.

The cause of death has not yet been determined.

Carrington, whose stage name was Debbie Lee Carrington, may be best known for her performance as Thumbelina in 1990’s “Total Recall,” where she played a prostitute. In one of the film’s more violent scenes, she stabbed one of the villains before shooting at police with a machine gun. As a little person, she often played a stuntwoman for child actors, including in “Titanic” and the “Child’s Play” series. Carrington also took on a number of costumed roles across film and TV, from characters in several “Star Wars” films and “Men in Black.”

Born in San Jose, Calif., in 1959, Carrington attended University of California, Davis until she answered a casting advertisement by Little People of America looking for actors in the 1981 movie “Under the Rainbow,” based on the Munchkins from “The Wizard of Oz.” She landed a part in the film and soon went on to be an Ewok in “Return of the Jedi” and a duck in “Howard the Duck.”

On the small screen, her roles included Tiny Avenger on “In Living Color,” Tammy in “Seinfeld,” and Doreen in “The Drew Carey Show.” Recently, she played an elf in 2004’s computer-animated “The Polar Express” and Tina Marie in Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie.”

Carrington is survived by her parents and brother, Robert, and sister, Kathy.

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