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Who was Hervé Villechaize, the inspiration for the new film My Dinner with Hervé?

Hervé on the set of Fantasy Island (Picture: ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images) HERVE VILLECHAIZE

My Dinner with Hervé is set to be one of the films of the year, starring Peter Dinklage, Andy Garcia, and Jamie Dornan.

Dinklage will play the lead role, acting as tortured actor Hervé Villechaize himself.

The film follows Hervés last days, particularly focusing on the interview My Dinner with Hervé director Sacha Gervasi had with him shortly before his suicide.

But just who was Hervé Villechaize?

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Hervé was born in Paris on 23 April 1943.

From birth he had a form of dwarfism caused by an endocrine disorder, and suffered at the hands of bullies at school because of this.

He entered art school at 16 and at one point was the youngest artist ever to have his work displayed in the Museum of Paris, before leaving for New York in 1964.

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While there he taught himself English by watching TV and began auditioning for acting roles.

Villechaize and Kathy Self (Picture: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage)

Starting in acting roles, Villechaize then went on to movies, with his first being Chappaqua in 1966.

His big break, however, was in Man With The Golden Gun in 1974, where he played Scaramangas accomplice Nick Nack.

He then went on to play Tattoo in Fantasy Island for many years, as well as having various parts in other shows and movies.

According to some reports, he became extremely difficult to work with on Fantasy Island, and was reprimanded for arguing with staff and propositioning women.

He was eventually fired after asking for wage parity with his co-star Ricardo Montalbán.

He was a complex man (Picture: Ron Galella/WireImage)

In terms of his personal life, Hervé was married twice (first to Anne Sadowski and then to Camille Hagen).

However, he had a number of demons, which he was never able to get rid of.

He suffered severe pain due to fact his organs grew at a faster rate than the outside of his body, and hed apparently even sleep in a kneeling position to avoid the pressure.

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Villechaize also had depression, and did interviews about his low times.

In 1993, he sadly killed himself, and was found by his then-girlfriend Kathy Self.

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Kathy told Variety of the biopic, If he [Villechaize] was here, he probably would be very proud that theyre making a movie about him, but then hed be annoyed that he wasnt the star.

My Dinner With Hervé will be shown on HBO 20 October.

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