How short can a normally proportioned person be before they are considered deformed?

How tall is that little woman on NCIS Los Angelos? She looks normally proportioned.

@faye – when you described here, I was wondering, is that Linda Hunt you’re talking about?

It was Linda Hunt.

@Ltryptophan – I think there’s a problem with this question in that there really isn’t a scientific boundary that I know of describing when shortness/proportion interact to create deformed. Dwarfism has historically been thought of as someone under 4’10” – but that’s not really a medical standard for a “disorder,” and people with dwarfism are often proportionally built.

I would say that there are plenty of people who are proportional, not deformed, and under 3 feet tall that we see every day, though – they’re called “children.” ;-)

Yes, Linda Hunt.

Yea, here in spain there are a lot of short people, my friend Rufo has totally normal proportions, he is 26yo now, but he is the size of a 5–6 year old. I have never measured him, but I’m 6ft 6in, and I used to joke around with him by sitting on the floor and telling him to “pick on someone your own size”, and even then i had an inch or so on him.

@iamthemob Children actually ARE proportionally deformed when compared to adults. A child’s head is very large in proportion to their body (about ⅓ to ¼ of the overall height) whereas an adult’s body is about 1/7 of the overall height (and if you are sketching an adult, the head is often 1/8th the overall height to make the proportions of the drawing look accurate). Here

Actually, regarding children, that is why they fall down a lot, they are top heavy. Toddlers lean a little forward and boom, on the ground. Run a little down hill, boom, skinned knee.

As far as adults go, I think that is the difference betweena little person and a dwarf. A dwarf does not have typical normal proportions.

Actually, I found this which contradicts what I said sort of. It seems dwarfs are little people and midget is not used anymore and is offensive. Disproportionate dwarfs do have some specific characteristics including proportion. Under 4’10” you are a little person according to the wikipedia page.

I just noticed @iamthemob has the same link :).