Terry

Terry (November 17, 1933 – September 1, 1945) was a female Cairn Terrier performer who appeared in many different movies, most famously as Toto in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939). It was her only credited role, though she was credited not as Terry but as Toto. She was owned and trained by Carl Spitz and Gabrielle Quinn.

𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫

Terry, born in the midst of the Great Depression, was trained and owned by Carl Spitz. She was the mother of Rommy, another movie Cairn Terrier, who appeared in other films including Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and Air Force (1943). Her first film appearance was in Ready for Love (1934) which was released on November 30, 1934, roughly one month before her first major film appearance, with Shirley Temple, in Bright Eyes (1934) as Rags.

She did her own stunts and was seriously injured during the filming of The Wizard of Oz (1939), when one of the Winkie guards accidentally stepped on her foot, breaking it. Terry spent two weeks recuperating at Judy Garland's residence, and Garland developed a close attachment to her. Garland offered to buy Terry from Spitz, but he refused to sell her. Terry's $125 per week salary was more than that of many actors in the film, and also more than the average working American at the time. She attended the premiere of The Wizard of Oz at Grauman's Chinese Theater; because of the popularity of the film, her name was formally changed to Toto in 1942.

She had 23 total film appearances, three of which were playing in theatres at the same time in the fall of 1939: The Wizard of Oz, The Women, and Bad Little Angel. Among the last ones was Tortilla Flat (1942), in which she was reunited with Oz director Victor Fleming and Frank Morgan, who played Professor Marvel and the Wizard. Terry's final film role was in Easy to Look At, released three weeks before her death. Her penultimate film, Adventures of Rusty, was released posthumously just five days after her death. She was uncredited in both films.

𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲’𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡

Terry died at age 11 in Hollywood on September 1, 1945, and was buried at Spitz's ranch in Studio City, Los Angeles. The grave was destroyed during the construction of the Ventura Freeway in 1958.

On June 18, 2011, a permanent memorial for Terry was dedicated at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

(𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞: 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐭𝐨, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐃𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐳 (𝟏𝟗𝟑𝟗)

(𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞: 𝐖𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 & 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐠: 𝐀 𝐃𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚)