Michael J. Anderson

Michael J. Anderson

The three-and-a-half-foot-tall American actor Michael J. Anderson is often referred to as the dwarf from Twin Peaks. His height is due to a bone condition called osteogenesis imperfecta. Credited as The Little Man From Another Place, he appeared in dream sequences talking backwards and dressed in a red suit. He also appeared in two other early '90s David Lynch projects, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted. Anderson had actually made his feature debut in the Canadian family film The Great Land of Small in 1987. During the '90s, he made television guest-star appearances on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Picket Fences, and The X-Files. After a brief role in Roger Corman's daytime miniseries The Phantom Eye, he joined the cast of the ABC daytime drama Port Charles as double agent Peter Zorn. In 2001, he reunited with Corman for the short-lived TV series Black Scorpion and reunited with David Lynch for a brief part in Mulholland Drive. Back in the realm of children's entertainment, Anderson also appeared in the action fantasy film Warriors of Virtue (1997) and the made-for-TV film Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001). Anderson's major breakthrough came in the 2003 HBO series Carnivàle as Samson, the leader of a traveling carnival in 1930s Dust Bowl America. Projects for 2004 include a starring role in Geofrey Hildrew's Big Time, opposite the seven-and-a-half-foot-tall Matthew McGrory from Tim Burton's Big Fish. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide