01/01/2026
ET was a disabled boy..
He was 12 years old, born without legs, and could walk on his hands faster than most kids could run. Hollywood needed someone who could make a rubber alien stumble drunkenly through a kitchen. They found him in a hospital. He helped create the most beloved character in film history. Almost nobody knows his name.
In 1981, Steven Spielberg had a problem.
He was filming E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial—a movie about a lost alien befriended by a lonely boy—and the alien had to feel real. Not mechanical. Not like a puppet jerking on strings. Real.
Carlo Rambaldi, an Academy Award-winning special effects artist, had spent six months and $1.5 million creating three E.T. models: a mechanical version operated by cables, an electronic one for facial expressions, and a wearable costume for walking scenes.
But making the costume move convincingly—with the awkward, endearing waddle that would make audiences fall in love—required something puppets and animatronics couldn't provide: a human being.
Not just any human. Someone who could fit inside a four-foot rubber suit, whose head would go in the chest cavity, who could create fluid, organic movement while essentially walking upside-down.
Someone found Matthew De Meritt.
Matthew was born on April 21, 1970, in Los Angeles County, California, without legs. Where most children learned to walk on their feet, Matthew learned to walk on his hands. Not as a gimmick or a trick—as his primary mode of movement.
By age 12, he could skateboard on his hands, race around on a board, maneuver with balance and agility that seemed almost impossible. His upper body strength was extraordinary. His coordination was flawless.
In 1981, Matthew was undergoing physical therapy at UCLA Medical Center when someone from Universal Studios approached his doctors. They were looking for someone unique—someone whose physical abilities could bring an alien to life in ways nobody had attempted before.
"There was a fitting and they took all my measurements and they filmed me walking on my hands," Matthew recalled years later in a 2002 interview with The Mirror. "I'm not sure what they were thinking when they got me down there. I'd never demonstrated to anybody that I could walk on my hands, and I don't see how they could think I could comfortably fit inside a costume and walk around and make a convincing alien."
He paused, then added with characteristic understatement: "But it kind of worked."
The E.T. costume was not comfortable.
It was a massive, four-foot rubber suit that weighed heavily on whoever wore it. The performers' heads went through a chest slit, positioned where E.T.'s torso would be. Their hands became E.T.'s feet, creating the alien's distinctive waddle. Arm movements were handled by professional mime Caprice Rothe, who hid underneath platforms with long gloves, reaching up to make E.T.'s four-fingered hands pick seeds out of watermelon or gesture expressively.
The suit was suffocating. "It was like a steam bath," said Pat Bilon, one of two actors with dwarfism (along with Tamara De Treaux) who also performed E.T.'s movements in various scenes. Between takes, crew members removed the E.T. head and blasted the performers with blow dryers to cool them down. "They got me aspirins for my back pain," Bilon told People magazine in 1982. "I couldn't stand up a long time."
For Matthew, the challenges were different but just as intense. He had to create believable movement while essentially moving on his hands inside a heavy rubber suit with limited visibility and brutal heat.
His moment came in one of the film's most memorable sequences: the scene where E.T. gets drunk.
While Elliott (played by Henry Thomas) is at school, E.T. stays home alone and discovers beer in the refrigerator. He drinks it and gets hilariously, endearingly drunk—stumbling around the kitchen, falling, wobbling with that perfect combination of comedy and vulnerability that made E.T. so lovable.
That's Matthew De Meritt inside the suit.
Spielberg needed those falls to look both funny and genuine. He needed E.T. to stumble with awkward charm, to fall "smack on his face" in a way that made audiences laugh while still caring about the character. Matthew's balance, agility, and body control—honed from a lifetime of walking on his hands—gave E.T. exactly that quality.
The scene is less than two minutes long. But it's one of the most iconic moments in the film. E.T., drunk and alone, stumbling around the house while Elliott telepathically experiences the effects at school—it's comedy gold that required perfect physical performance.
Matthew delivered it. At 12 years old. Inside a suffocating rubber suit. Creating movement that felt organic and alive.
Between takes, Matthew would zip around the set on his skateboard, charming cast and crew with his speed and energy. The production team was amazed by his skill and his spirit.
But when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial premiered on June 11, 1982, and became an instant cultural phenomenon—grossing over $792 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time until Jurassic Park in 1993—Matthew De Meritt's name didn't appear in the credits under his role.
He was listed only as part of "E.T. Movement" or "Special E.T. Movement"—uncredited as an individual performer. The world fell in love with E.T. without knowing who was inside the suit making the alien stumble and fall and move with such heartbreaking authenticity.
Pat Bilon and Tamara De Treaux, the two actors with dwarfism who also performed E.T.'s movements, were similarly uncredited or listed vaguely. (Tamara De Treaux died tragically young in 1990 at age 30; Pat Bilon passed away in 2020.)
For decades, Matthew lived outside the spotlight. E.T. would be his only major film appearance. While the movie became a beloved classic—inspiring sequels, theme park attractions, and generations of filmmakers—Matthew moved on with his life, largely unknown to the millions who adored the character he'd helped create.
It wasn't until 2022, on the 40th anniversary of E.T.'s release, that Matthew De Meritt made a rare public appearance.
He walked the red carpet at a special screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, posing for photographers alongside Steven Spielberg, Dee Wallace, and others associated with the film. At 52 years old, Matthew received the recognition that had been denied him for four decades.
Fans who'd grown up loving E.T. learned for the first time about the boy born without legs who'd walked on his hands inside a rubber suit to bring their favorite alien to life.
Today, Matthew appears occasionally at comic conventions—Pensacon, Omega Con, Pasadena Comic Convention—where he discusses his iconic role and shares behind-the-scenes stories with fans who finally know his name.
His story is a powerful reminder of how creativity and physical diversity shape art in ways we rarely acknowledge.
Matthew De Meritt didn't just perform E.T.'s movements—he gave the character humanity. His unique abilities, his strength, his agility born from a lifetime of moving differently than everyone else—that's what made E.T. feel real.
Every time E.T. waddles across the screen, every time the alien stumbles drunkenly through that kitchen, every time audiences laugh and cry watching this strange creature who just wants to go home—they're watching Matthew De Meritt's artistry.
He was 12 years old. He was born without legs. He could walk on his hands with grace that most people couldn't achieve with their feet.
And he helped create the most beloved alien in cinema history.
The world fell in love with E.T. without knowing Matthew's name.
But now you do.
