Less than two weeks after Verne Troyer, best known for playing Mini-Me in the Austin Powers film series, passed away at 49 years old, Mike Myers paid tribute to the actor on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “Verne was a fantastic human being,” Myers, who worked with Troyer in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember, told Kimmel, struggling to hold back tears.
Myers described his diminutive co-star as a “great physical comedian, a great dancer” and “just a fantastic guy.” He continued, “As written, Mini-Me is like almost a prop, but he brought it up off the page, made it better than written, and we ended up giving him more and more stuff to do” (including a Jay Z-inspired prison rap). The Gong Show host attended Troyer’s funeral, where he was moved by a photo montage. “He died at 49. He wasn’t supposed to live past his teens,” he said. “You saw 150 years worth of life in this photo montage.”
“Every day you see him, you go ‘Wow! That is a small human.’ But by the end of the day, you just saw Verne. It just sort of went away… He was part of the cast and fantastic. I miss him.
Watch the emotional tribute above.
