Remembering Verne Troyer’s Most Hilarious Performances

Verne Troyer, the 2’8″ actor best known for playing Dr. Evil’s clone, Mini-Me, in the Austin Powers franchise, passed away at the age of 49 over the weekend.

“It is with great sadness and incredibly heavy hearts to write that Verne passed away today,” Troyer’s family wrote in a statement announcing his death on Sunday. “Verne was an extremely caring individual. He wanted to make everyone smile, be happy, and laugh. Anybody in need, he would help to any extent possible. Verne hoped he made a positive change with the platform he had and worked towards spreading that message every day.”

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Troyer’s cause of death is not yet known, but the actor has wrestled with alcoholism in the past and was reportedly hospitalized earlier this month for alcohol abuse. “Over the years he’s struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much,” Troyer’s family said. “Depression and suicide are very serious issues,” it adds.

His role as Dr. Evil’s silent sidekick in the Austin Powers sequel, The Spy Who Shagged Me, and later in the third film, Goldmember, made him a star, but his career as a character actor and comedian was more than just backing up a rapping Mike Myers. Troyer first came into prominence in the mid 1990s with small roles in Men in Black and Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas adaptation. Following the success of his Austin Powers role, he went on to act in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor. Parnassus, and Myers’s 2008 comedy The Love Guru, as well as appear as himself on reality TV shows like The Surreal Life.

In honor of Troyer’s decades-long career, we’ve collected some of our favorite performances below.

Goldmember (2002)

The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

The Love Guru (2008)

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