Talking with Tim

Michael Dunn

I love it when an interview opportunity lands in my lap.  I first found out about Sherry Kelly’s book about her cousin (The Big Life of a Little Man, Michael Dunn Remembered) from friend of the blog, Amy H. Sturgis. Kelly was willing to be email interviewed about the book. Here is the official description of the book: “”With the help of a treasure trove of letters, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and personal journal entries from his mother, author Sherry Kelly has compiled a touching and comprehensive account of the life of Michael Dunn, the famous little person actor of the sixties and seventies. Michael was well known as Dr. Loveless in The Wild Wild West TV series and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the movie Ship of Fools. Dunn lived an amazing life from childhood until his mysterious death in London while filming a movie.” My thanks to Kelly for her time and to Sturgis for making me aware of this fascinating book.

Tim O’Shea: I take it that given the fact you had access to “letters, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and personal journal entries from his mother” in preparing the book, you were fairly close to your aunt? Given that she died in 1990, I was wondering–did she hope someone might try to write a book about her son some day?

Sherry Kelly: (Note: I will be referring to my cousin both as “Gary” and “Michael”.)  My mother and Gary’s mother were sisters and our families were very close. Both families lived on the same block in Detroit during Gary’s early childhood and then when Gary was 12-13 years old, my parents along with my older sister, LaRee, and older brother, Tim, and I, moved back to Oklahoma to be near our grandparents who were in declining health. Even with all the distance between us the families remained close and mother and my aunt kept up with all their respective news through letter writing. Telephone calls were expensive back then, considered a luxury, and made only occasionally – on birthdays or to report emergencies. Gary was especially close to my sister and brother who were nearer to him in age. Gary’s parents, Fred and Jewell Miller, moved back to Oklahoma to be near us in their later years. They had no other children and our family looked after Aunt Jewell during the last 15 years or so of her life.

After Aunt Jewell moved into a nursing home in 1986, her file cabinet ended up stored in my sister’s garage. Then following my sister’s death in 2008 my brother looked through the files for the first time. I had been talking about maybe writing Gary’s life story and Tim knew the files would be very helpful to me. He brought them over for me to look through and I was amazed at what she had kept. I was also very surprised to find from Aunt Jewell’s journals that she had wanted “to write” her entire life. She even took a famous writer’s course and some of the things she wrote for the course are included in the book. In fact, when I read my aunts “writings” I immediately decided they could be included in my manuscript, and it felt like she was giving me her blessing. I even feel like I have helped her posthumously fulfill her dream of becoming a published writer. I don’t recall Aunt Jewell ever speaking about wanting a book written about Gary, but I feel sure she, Uncle Fred, and Gary would all be happy with The Big Life of a Little Man. Interestingly, while going through my aunt’s files, I found a post card I had written her when I was very young. I don’t know what I had in mind at the time, but I wrote that “I will write you a book someday”. I don’t remember writing the card and I was touched and happy that she had kept it all those years. It just seems one of those things that was “meant to be”.

O’Shea: What kind of surprises or insights did you gain about your cousin and/or his spiritual pursuits from that period in the 1950s when he explored the possibility of becoming a Capuchin monk?

Kelly:  I would have liked to have had more information available about this. The monastery was good to check their records for me and share what they had, but there just wasn’t a lot included. From the personal letters I have concerning this time, I gathered that Gary was searching for a meaningful life-path to take. He had gone to Hollywood after college and tried for awhile to get into the singing industry but had been unsuccessful. He was at that age of “searching for himself”. Some of his friends were serving our country in the armed forces and Gary was feeling a little “useless”. He thought the life of a monk might be a way he could feel worthwhile and be of service to God and others. However, he was at the monastery less than three months. The reason for his leaving is unclear but may have been the result of having to constantly climb stairs while wearing a heavy robe. These were both mentioned as being difficult for him. Whatever the reason,  it wasn’t long after this that he renewed his dream of getting into show business and again went in search of it – this time to New York City.

O’Shea: In terms of his entertainment career and your research of that, how hard was it to track down some of his co-stars, given the passage of time?

Kelly:  This was very difficult and discouraging. I used the Internet and wrote letters in care of Actors Equity, Screen Actors Guild, the Actors Studio, and to old addresses that I found, etc. all without success. I got very few back as being undeliverable, but I didn’t hear from any of them. Of course, if they did receive the letters, they may have been busy, sick, or just didn’t want to mess with me. I’m sure they get all kinds of mail and don’t have time to read and respond to it all. This type of research was all new to me and I’m sure I didn’t do all that could be done, but I did all that I knew to do at the time.

O’Shea: In terms of these interviews, were there any that were more challenging or more enjoyable than the others?

Kelly:  I was very fortunate to make contact with John Softness who wrote the book’s Foreword. John first met Gary while they were both students at the University of Miami. John graduated a year before Gary and joined the military. They lost contact until a few years later when they “bumped into each other” at a party in New York City. Gary had already changed his name to Michael Dunn and introduced himself to his “old” friend who soon became Michael’s first manager. John and Michael were the best of friends the rest of my cousin’s life, and John became my friend through the “magic of email” as he puts it. John was so good to answer my many questions and he filled in a lot of “holes” for me. Out of everyone I tried to contact, John Softness was the most important to the book’s completion and I am blessed to have reached him and found him so willing to help.

O’Shea: Am I correct in assuming that the reported phase of his life involving espionage was the hardest to research?

Kelly:  Yes. Besides my brother’s declarations, I really only have the memories of family discussions and comments in letters. I never spoke to my aunt, uncle, or cousin directly about this. I wish I had. (In fact there are a lot of questions I wish now that I had asked, but this subject was always taboo.) My brother did have face to face conversations with Gary about this and Tim is convinced that he was telling the truth. It was told in confidence and in a serious way and Tim could tell when Gary was “joking”. My aunt and uncle were also convinced – and very concerned – and it just doesn’t make sense that Gary would continue to deceive and worry his parents for so many years about something like that.

O’Shea: In addition to his many episodes on The Wild Wild West, he appeared in the pilot episode of Get Smart–are you able to delve into that somewhat in the book?

Kelly:  You know, I didn’t really. I’m not sure why. There was just so much to think about and research and I just didn’t get to that. I did comment at the end of the book that Michael Dunn had made a recent appearance in the latest Get Smart movie released in June of 2008. He appeared during the opening credits as Mr. Big, the villain he played in the earlier series, on a wanted poster. That happened while I was writing the book and I could almost hear my cousin chuckle about it – like he did at the end of every Wild Wild West episode.

O’Shea: Few people can say they were nominated for a Tony (on a Carson McCullers play adapted by Edward Albee, no less) in one year followed by an Oscar nomination (in 1965′s Stanley Kramer-directed Ship of Fools) the next year. It seemed like he always stayed quite busy, did it seem like all the work, coupled with his health concerns, ever stressed him at periods like these?

Kelly:  You know it seemed like Gary thrived on being busy. The busier he was the happier he seemed. I think the early periods of not having work were the more stressful for him. Toward the end of his life when he could feel his body slowing down he was also very concerned about how much longer he would be able to continue to perform.

Chapter nine in the book is a narrative written by Michael himself about a pleasant period in his life which is referred to as being joyful and stress-free. It was during the summer of 1966. He was between jobs but was delighting in much success and feeling optimistic about the future.

(Incidentally, I got a couple of letters from Edward Albee. He didn’t have much information for me, but he was encouraging about my writing the book and I sent him a copy of it when it came out.)

O’Shea: What do you think he would make of the modern day popularity of reality shows featuring little people (if I’m using the improper term here, please correct me and I will replace it)–such as on TLC?

Kelly:   (It is my understanding that “little person”, “person of short stature”, and “dwarf”, are all acceptable terms.) You know, I can’t really answer this one. While he was alive Gary was not interested in organizations of little people and I don’t quite understand why. I think he just might feel differently about it today though. I personally love the shows, Little People, Big World, and, The Little Couple. (Those are the only two I have seen so far.) I think they are very well done and show that little people are just like everyone else, only little. They have problems that are unique to them and sharing these with the TV public is admirable.

Aunt Jewell respected the Little People of America organization and donated some of Gary’s tailor-made clothing to them after his death.

Gary Arnold, Vice President of Public Relations, Little People of America, read my manuscript and wrote an endorsement which is printed both in and on the back of the book.

O’Shea: Is there anything you’d like to discuss that I neglect to ask you about?

Kelly:  The book covers Gary’s entire life from before his birth until after his death. It tells about his up-bringing that taught him not to let his physical limitations stop him from doing anything that he wanted to do. It covers many of Gary’s challenges and achievements throughout his amazing life, proclaims his courage and determination, and relates his winning and jovial personality. The reader also gains insight into his parents’ love, dreams, and heartaches. The Big Life of a Little Man is a written portrait of a man who refused to let his physical limitations prevent him from achieving his dreams and is a classic story of abounding family love.

I have written three very different books! The Big Life of a Little Man: Michael Dunn Remembered is the third. The other two are A Cat Named Zooby, a charming true story for ages 8 to 108, and, Your New Baby’s Instruction Book, for expectant parents and parents of newborns to age 12 months. Now babies can come with instructions! All three books make great gifts and are available wherever books are sold and from the publisher at 888-361-9473, or online at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. I can be reached at skauthor1 AT aol.com.