Zelda Rubinstein

Rubinstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 28, 1933, to Dolores and George Rubinstein, Jewish immigrants from Poland.{{cite news |first= Frank| last= Rizzo|title= 'Poltergeist'{{'}}s Zelda Rubinstein Dies; Starred in Hartford Project|url=http://blogs.courant.com/curtain/2010/02/poltergeists-zelda-rubinstein.html|work=Hartford Courant| date=February 2, 2010| access-date=February 26, 2010| url-status=dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130102062803/http://blogs.courant.com/curtain/2010/02/poltergeists-zelda-rubinstein.html|archive-date=January 2, 2013}}{{Cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ6J-4H7|title=FamilySearch.org|website=FamilySearch| url-access= registration |accessdate=April 22, 2023}} She was the youngest of three children.

She was the only dwarf in her family.{{cite news|first=Dennis |last=McLellan |title=Zelda Rubinstein dies at 76; actress played psychic in 'Poltergeist'|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-zelda-rubinstein28-2010jan28,0,7108032,full.story |work=Los Angeles Times|date=January 28, 2010 |access-date=February 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100130210103/http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-zelda-rubinstein28-2010jan28,0,7108032,full.story |archive-date=January 30, 2010 |url-status=dead }} Her stature resulted due to a deficiency of the anterior pituitary gland, which produces growth hormone. Rubinstein did not become comfortable with her short stature until she was an adult. In a 1992 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Rubinstein told the newspaper that she "had a rough childhood, [but] I became very verbally facile ... I learned to meet everyone head-on." In adulthood at her tallest, she stood {{cvt|4|ft|3|in}} tall Commenting in 2002 on the challenges of being a midget (a now offensive term), Rubinstein said, "Midgets 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."{{cite web |url= http://www.nctc.net/hazard/conrad/michaeldunn/biography/ |title=What's in a Diagnosis? A Medical Biography of Michael Dunn |work=NCTC.net |first=Elisabeth |last=Thomas-Matej |year=2002 |access-date=June 8, 2008 |archive-date=May 31, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170531053357/http://www.nctc.net/hazard/conrad/michaeldunn/biography/ |url-status=dead }}

Rubinstein won a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned her bachelor's degree in bacteriology and became a sister of the national sorority Phi Sigma Sigma.{{cite web |url= http://www.phisigmasigma.org/PHISIGMASIGMA/PHISIGMASIGMA/inAction/AlumnaSpotlight/Profiles/Alumna/ZeldaRubinstein/Default.aspx |title=Zelda Rubinstein, Iota - University of Pittsburgh |publisher= Phi Sigma Sigma | website= phisigmasigma.org |access-date= January 16, 2012 |archive-date= September 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927001144/http://www.phisigmasigma.org/PHISIGMASIGMA/PHISIGMASIGMA/inAction/AlumnaSpotlight/Profiles/Alumna/ZeldaRubinstein/Default.aspx |url-status= dead }} At age 25, she continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley,{{cite news|first=Margalit|last=Fox|title=Zelda Rubinstein, 76, 'Poltergeist' Actress |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E6DA133CF93AA15752C0A9669D8B63 |work=The New York Times|date=January 29, 2010 |access-date=February 26, 2010}} where she also studied acting.

File:Zelda Rubinstein.jpg]]

Rubenstein worked as a medical laboratory technician at blood banks. However, in 1978, she decided to pursue an acting career. She studied acting at the University of California. Poltergeist was her first major film role.

Film critic Pauline Kael, who essentially dismissed Poltergeist as an "entertaining hash", held special praise for Rubinstein's portrayal of the psychic Tangina, saying she "gives the movie new life and makes a large chunk of it work."{{Cite book |last=Kael |first=Pauline |author-link=Pauline Kael |title=5001 Nights at the Movies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4LzeUZ03vQC |year=2011 |orig-year=1991 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |location=New York |isbn=978-1-250-03357-4 |page=588 }} She remained active in film and television thereafter, frequently portraying various psychic characters, such as her appearance on Jennifer Slept Here. She also narrated the horror television series Scariest Places on Earth, which aired in the US on ABC Family and in Canada on YTV.

Rubinstein's other film roles included Sixteen Candles, Under the Rainbow, Cages, Teen Witch, The Wildcard, Southland Tales and National Lampoon's Last Resort. She also contributed voice-over work for TV including Hey Arnold!, and The Flintstones. She made numerous guest appearances on network TV shows, including Caroline in the City, Martin, Mr. Belvedere, and had a recurring role as sheriff's assistant Ginny Weedon in the TV series Picket Fences. Her character there was killed off in typical offbeat fashion, by falling into a freezer early in the third season. She also appeared in an episode of Tales From The Crypt in which she played the mother of a girl who has been dead for 40 years. She also starred in two different roles on Santa Barbara in 1984 and in 1990.

Beginning in 1999, she performed voiceovers for television, starting with the Fox Family reality TV show Scariest Places on Earth over its multiple seasons. This was followed by work in commercials promoting movies such as Lady in the Water and products including Skittles candy. Her last film role came in 2007 when she made a cameo appearance in the horror film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. She also appeared in a cameo as herself at the Revenge of the Mummy ride in Universal Studios Florida on the screens which shows various actors from the films warning the people to leave, telling them about the curse of Imhotep.

Rubinstein was an advocate for "the rights of little people (the term she preferred)." She was a founding member of the Michael Dunn Memorial Repertory Theater,{{efn|The group was named to honor the little person actor known for his role as villain Dr. Loveless in the 1960s television adventure series The Wild Wild West and Glocken in the 1965 feature film Ship of Fools}} started in 1981. The theater group's tallest performer was {{cvt|4|ft|6|in}}.

Additionally, she became active in the fight against HIV/AIDS in 1984. She appeared in a series of advertisements, directed towards gay men specifically, promoting safer sex and AIDS awareness. Rubinstein did so at risk to her own career, especially so shortly after her rise to fame, and admitted later that she did "pay a price, career-wise." "I lost a friend to AIDS, one of the first public figures that died of AIDS," the actress said in an interview with The Advocate. "I knew it was not the kind of disease that would stay in anybody's backyard. It would climb the fences, get over the fences into all of our homes. It was not limited to one group of people."{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/28/zelda.rubinstein.obit/ | work=CNN | title='Poltergeist' actress dies at age 76 | date=January 28, 2010}} She attended the first AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS Walk.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lgbtpov.com/2009/12/actress-zelda-rubinstein-taken-off-life-support/|title=Actress Zelda Rubinstein taken off life support | website= LGBTPOV.com| publisher= |date=January 2, 2010|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100102060146/http://www.lgbtpov.com/2009/12/actress-zelda-rubinstein-taken-off-life-support/ |accessdate=April 22, 2023|archive-date=January 2, 2010 }}

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Rubinstein resided in London for several years when she worked as a laboratory technician. After returning to the US, she resided in the Greater Los Angeles, California, area for many years.

Rubinstein died in Los Angeles on January 27, 2010. She was 76 years old. Eric Stevens, Rubinstein's agent for four years, said the actress never recovered from a mild heart attack several months earlier, which he said had left her a patient at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles. "She had several pre-existing conditions that she had been dealing with for years, and unfortunately they began to overtake her," Stevens said. Stevens also said that per Rubinstein's request, no funeral would be held.

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Category:1933 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:Actresses from Pittsburgh

Category:Actors with dwarfism

Category:American actors with disabilities

Category:American film actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:American voice actresses

Category:University of Pittsburgh alumni

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:Actresses from Berkeley, California

Category:Actresses from Los Angeles

Category:Jewish American actresses

Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:Deaths from kidney failure in California

Category:Deaths from lung disease

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:American HIV/AIDS activists

Category:Jewish American activists

Category:Jewish human rights activists

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:American activists with disabilities