In 2011, Ben Woolf joined the cast of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” to play the character Meep. Set in 1952, his character was one of the many human oddities as part of the Elsa Mars Freak Show, fulfilling the role of the “carnival geek.” During this time period, “geeks” were hired to chase live chickens, the performance usually ending with the geek biting the chickens’ heads off and swallowing them. Meep was of limited vocabulary but more than made up for it with his huge personality.
Sadly, the character met a tragic fate as one of the season’s early inciting incidents. This wasn’t Woolf’s first time playing in show creator Ryan Murphy’s sandbox, as he appeared during the first season of the series as Thaddeus Montgomery, aka “The Infantata,” the reanimated being made of Charles and Nora Montgomery’s deceased child.
Wolf was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism as a child and grew to the height of 4 feet 4 inches by adulthood. He was also a beloved preschool teacher before setting his sights on acting. His acting career began to blossom shortly after his “Insidious” and “American Horror Story” roles, appearing in the anthology film “Tales of Halloween” and “Haunting Charles Manson.” Sadly, Woolf passed away in 2015 due to a stroke resulting from a head injury he received after a traffic accident. His passing was an immense loss, exacerbated by the fact it was obvious that he was well-loved by horror fans and was heading toward a long, successful career.
A talented performer lost too soon, but at least we’ll always have these characters to remember him by.