Zelda Rubinstein

Zelda May Rubinsteinhttps://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VM8Q-1MF (May 28, 1933 – January 27, 2010) was an American actress and human rights activist, known as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons in the Poltergeist film series.Obituary London Independent, April 22, 2010. 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.
==Early life==
Rubinstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 28, 1933 to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland, Dolores and George Rubinstein.https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ6J-4H7 She was the youngest of three children and the only dwarf in her family. 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."
She stood just tall due to a deficiency of the anterior pituitary gland, which produces growth hormone. Commenting in 2002 on the challenges of being a very short-statured person, 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."
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. She moved to Berkeley, California, at the age of 25, studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a medical lab technician at blood banks.
==Acting career==
In 1978, Zelda decided to pursue an acting career. She studied acting at the University of California. Poltergeist was her first major film role. 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 U.S. on ABC Family and in Canada on YTV.
Rubinstein's other minor/major 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 starring role as Ginny Weedon in the TV series Picket Fences. Her character there was killed off in typical off-beat 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. In 1993, she made a cameo appearance in the campy thriller Acting on Impulse, which reunited her with Poltergeist III co-star Nancy Allen.
She also starred in two different roles on the same show in 1984 and in 1990: Santa Barbara.
Beginning in 1999, she did voiceovers in television starting with the Fox Family reality TV Show, Scariest Places On Earth, 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.
==Human rights and activism==
Rubinstein 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." She attended the first AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS Walk.Actress Zelda Rubinstein taken off life support : LGBT | POV
==Death==
Rubinstein died in Los Angeles, California, on January 27, 2010. She was 76. Eric Stevens, Rubinstein's agent for the past four years, said the actress had never recovered from a mild heart attack she suffered several months earlier, which he said 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.
==Filmography==
===Films===
 List of film credits
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1979	Americathon 	Act 	
1981	Under the Rainbow 	Iris 	
1981	Petra 	 	
1982	Poltergeist 	Tangina Barrons 	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1982	Frances 	Mental Patient 	Credited as Zelda Rubenstein
1983	 	Daughter 	
1984	Sixteen Candles 	Organist 	
1986	Poltergeist II: The Other Side 	Tangina Barrons 	Nominated-Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress
1987	Anguish 	Alice Pressman, the Mother	Alternative title: Angustia
1988	Poltergeist III 	Tangina Barrons 	Nominated-Saturn Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated-Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress
1989	Teen Witch 	Madame Serena Alcott 	
1991	Guilty as Charged 	Edna 	
1994	National Lampoon's Last Resort 	Old Hermit 	Alternative titles: Last Resort, National Lampoon's Scuba School
1995	Timemaster 	Betting Clerk 	
1996	Lover's Knot 	Woman in Clinic 	
1996	Little Witches 	Mother Clodah 	
1997	Mama Dolly 	Mama Dolly 	
1997	Critics and Other Freaks 	Theatre Director 	
1998	Sinbad: The Battle of the Dark Knights 	Princess Shalazar 	
1999	Frank in Five 	Waitress 	
2000	Maria & Jose 	Doctor 	
2002	Wishcraft 	Medical Examiner 	
2004	 	Mrs. Stanfield 	Direct-to-DVD release
2005	Cages 	Liz 	
2005	Angels with Angles 	Zelda the Angel 	
2006	Unbeatable Harold 	Bunny 	
2006	Southland Tales 	Dr. Katarina Kuntzler 	
2006	Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon	Mrs. Collinwood 	Cameo
2014	Strange Matters 	Agnes Sampson 	(final film role)
 
 List of television credits
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1980 	The Flintstone Comedy Show	Atrocia Frankenstone (Voice) 	1 episode
1983 	Jennifer Slept Here 	 	1 episode
1983 	Matt Houston 	Flower Girl 	1 episode
1984 	Whiz Kids 	Madame Zerleena 	1 episode
1984 	Santa Barbara 	Mental Patient 	1 episode
1986 	ABC Weekend Special 	Ralph's Mother 	1 episode
1987 	 	 	1 episode
1987 	Faerie Tale Theatre 	Old Woman 	1 episode
1987 	Reading Rainbow 	Herself (Voice) 	1 episode
1987 	Sable 	Sister Glory 	1 episode
1990 	Santa Barbara 	Gladys Bittleworth, ghost psychic	5 episodes
1990 	Mr. Belvedere 	Murphy 	1 episode
1991 	Darkwing Duck 	Voice 	1 episode
1991 	 	Butterfingers O'Malley 	Television movie
1992 	Stormy Weathers 	Rosamund 	Television movie
1992 	Tales from the Crypt 	Nora 	1 episode
1992–1994	Picket Fences 	Ginny Weedon 	44 episodes
1993 	Acting on Impulse 	Nosy Lady 	Television movie
1996 	Poltergeist: The Legacy 	Christina 	1 episode
1997 	Martin 	Nurse Froyd 	1 episode
1997 	Chock 2 - Kött 	Mother 	Television movie
1998 	Caroline in the City 	Phyllis 	1 episode
1999 	Hey Arnold! 	Patty's Mother (Voice) 	1 episode
2000 	 	Pawn shop lady 	1 episode
2000–2006	Scariest Places on Earth 	Narrator 	41 episodes
2001 	 	Psychiatrist (Voice) 	Television movie
==References==
Category:1933 births
Category:2010 deaths
Category:Actresses from Pittsburgh
Category:Actors with dwarfism
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 renal failure
Category:Deaths from lung disease
Category:Disease-related deaths in California
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:HIV/AIDS activists
Category:The Pebble and the Penguin
Category:Don Bluth peopleCategory:Pages stolen off Wikipedia