Verne Troyer’s parents cut him no slack because of his height (Picture: Getty Images)

He may be one of the world’s shortest men but Verne Troyer’s disciplinarian parents never made allowances for him – and he’s glad.

I grew up in a small town called Centreville, with an older brother and a younger sister. My parents were factory workers, there wasn’t much money in the house and we struggled financially at times but we always made it through.

They were disciplinarians – if we did something wrong, we got the belt. I don’t necessarily agree with it now but that’s how it was back then. It taught me right from wrong. It is understandable it’s a controversial issue now but there’s a difference between discipline and abuse.



My parents were Amish but left the religion when I was a year old. The Amish have a lot of rules and my dad thought many people in the faith were being hypocritical – they’d say not to do something then do it themselves. We still had a religious upbringing, though.


Even though my parents were no longer Amish, it still played a big role in my life – there were Amish kids at my school, some of my best friends were Amish, our neighbours were Amish, my grandparents who lived 100 yards away were Amish and I was always in their house.

The differences were I could do things like watch TV and use a telephone, which they couldn’t – they were old-school, they had horses and buggies, gas lamps, it was a very simple life.

The community is very tight-knit. If something bad happens, your neighbours are there to lend you a hand – that’s a great thing about the Amish people.

My parents brought me up to be self-sufficient. I had to do everything my brother and sister, who are of average size, had to do – I didn’t get any breaks because of my height. I had to feed the cows, the chickens, raise the rabbits.

I rarely had any problems from people about my height. There was one incident when I was nine when another kid called me names and I punched him – my parents always taught me to stick up for myself.

I had a lot of jobs before acting came along and my parents never pushed me down any particular career path. I was a telephone operator, a candy wrapper, I worked in a women’s abuse shelter, customer service – lots of things. I left home at 21 to move in with my brother, who was living in Texas. My parents didn’t show they were concerned but I’m sure they were – it was the first time I had been so far away from them. It was a 17-hour drive.

My parents were proud when I became an actor. It wouldn’t have been possible if they hadn’t made me independent and encouraged me to do things on my own. They found out I married my girlfriend, who was a Playboy model, when they saw it on TV. I didn’t tell them.



I got it annulled three days later. I knew they didn’t like her that much but, whenever she was around, they made her feel at home. It was an unspoken thing.

The most important things my parents taught me were to stay optimistic, that you can do anything you put your mind to and to do the right thing.

Troyer appears in documentary series Incredibly Small World, which starts tonight at 9pm on National Geographic Channel.

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