Actor Verne Troyer, perhaps most-famous for his role as Mini-Me in the “Austin Powers” comedy movies, died Saturday at the age of 49.
The news of the Troyer’s death was reported on his Instagram account Saturday afternoon.
“It is with great sadness and incredibly heavy hearts to write that Verne passed away today,” a post to Troyer’s account read.
Troyer was a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I’m definitely a Steelers fan,” Troyer told Missi Matthews of steelers.com during a 2015 training camp visit. “Ever since the 70s – Steel Curtain and Jack Ham and Jack Lambert, Rocky Bleier, Franco [Harris], Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, [John] Stallworth, I could keep going, but ever since then I’ve been a fan.”
In 2016, Troyer even had Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown over to his house to play Madden 16. The wide receiver released a short statement on the passing of Troyer on his own Instragram account Saturday afternoon.
Troyer was born in Sturgis, Michigan on January 1, 1969 with achondroplasia dwarfism. At just 2 feet, 8-inches, he was considered to be one of the smallest people in the world but that didn’t prevent him from carving out a pretty big acting career that included several movies, television shows and commercials.