Zelda May Rubinstein[1] (May 28, 1933[2] – January 27, 2010) was an American actress and human rights activist, known as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the Poltergeist film series.[3] Playing "Ginny", she was a regular on David E. Kelley's Emmy Award-winning television series Picket Fences for two seasons. She also made guest appearances in the TV show Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996), as seer Christina, and was the voice of Skittles candies in their long-running "Taste the Rainbow" ad campaign. Rubinstein was also known for her outspoken activism for little people and her early participation in the fight against HIV/AIDS.[4][3]
Zelda Rubinstein and Heather O'Rourke were the only cast members to have appeared in all three Poltergeist films.
Early life, family and education
Rubinstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 28, 1933, to Dolores and George Rubinstein, Jewish immigrants from Poland.[5][6] She was the youngest of three children.
She was the only dwarf in her family.[7] Her stature was due to a deficiency of the anterior pituitary gland,[3] which produces growth hormone. Rubinstein did not become comfortable with her short stature until she was an adult.[7] 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."[7] In adulthood at her tallest, she stood 4ft 3in (1.30m) tall[8] Commenting in 2002 on the challenges of being a midget, 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."[9]
Rubenstein worked as a medical laboratorytechnician at blood banks.[7] 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."[11] Rubenstein 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.[7]
Beginning in 1999, she performed voiceovers for television, starting with the Fox Familyreality TV show Scariest Places on Earth over its multiple seasons.[3] 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.[3] 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.
Human rights and activism
Rubinstein was an advocate for "the rights of little people (the term she preferred)."[3] She was a founding member of the Michael Dunn Memorial Repertory Theater,[a] started in 1981.[3] The theater group's tallest performer was 4ft 6in (1.37m).[3]
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.[4] 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."[12] She attended the first AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS Walk.[13]
Rubinstein lived in London for several years when she worked as a laboratory technician.[3] After returning to the US, she lived 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 of 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 at Rubinstein's request, no funeral would be held.[12]
↑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
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