• BY SONNY LONG - SLONG@VICAD.COM
• Originally published January 10, 2010 at 11:06 p.m., updated January 11, 2010 at 11:22 a.m.

• SOME SHORT MALE CELEBRITIES

  John Keats 5'1"

  Al Pacino 5'5"

  Jason Alexander 5'5"

  Bob Dylan 5'6"

  Henry Kissinger 5'9"

  SOURCE: www.sixwise.com and www.allexperts.comSOME SHORT FEMALE CELEBRITIES

  Ruth Westheimer 4'7"

  Linda Hunt 4'9"

  Brenda Lee 4'9"

  Charlette Bronte ...

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SOME SHORT MALE CELEBRITIES

John Keats 5'1"

Al Pacino 5'5"

Jason Alexander 5'5"

Bob Dylan 5'6"

Henry Kissinger 5'9"

SOURCE: www.sixwise.com and www.allexperts.comSOME SHORT FEMALE CELEBRITIES

Ruth Westheimer 4'7"

Linda Hunt 4'9"

Brenda Lee 4'9"

Charlette Bronte 4'10"

Barbara Boxer 4'11""

SOURCE: www.allexperts.com

At 5 feet, 6 inches tall, Victoria County Judge Don Pozzi never gives his height much thought.

But he doesn't think being vertically challenged has affected his career path.

"I've never found my height to be a problem," said Pozzi, who practiced law for more than 30 years before being elected county judge eight years ago.

"In my professions, height doesn't matter," Pozzi said.

The same holds true for famous men throughout history who achieved the pinnacles of their careers, including Napoleon Bonaparte and English poet Alexander Pope who stood only 4 feet, 6 inches tall.

Even if there is a perceived or actual bias against short people, research reveals some good news.

Researcher and author Thomas T. Samaras and his associates have published papers in scientific and medical journals on the positive aspects of shorter height and smaller body size.

They found that shorter people have faster reaction times, greater ability to accelerate body movements, stronger muscles in proportion to body weight, greater endurance, and the ability to rotate the body faster.

A paper by the researchers illustrating the greater longevity of shorter people also appeared in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization in 1992. Since then, substantial findings have been presented showing that shorter, smaller people live longer.

Victoria's Jeff Lyon, a vice president and general manger at Gap Broadcasting, agreed that size doesn't matter.

Lyon said the only thing his lack of height has hampered is a career in the National Basketball Association.

"Height has no bearing on a person's success," he said. "I finally gave up on that NBA dream 18 months ago, but other than that it has never been an issue."

Lyon claims to be 5 feet, 6 inches tall, an assertion backed up by his driver's license, or, as he calls it, "an official state document."

"But don't ask my wife," he laughed. "She'll disagree."

An Australian study of wages and height also found that women are less affected by height bias.

Stature made less of a difference in women than it did in men in determining how well they were rewarded for their work, according to the study

Joel Waldfogel, a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, also found no relationship between height and success.

Writing on economics for slate.com, Waldfogel said in part, ". . . There are tall people who are not successful and short people who are very successful. The ability to succeed in life and find happiness has little to do with your height, and everything to do with your inner strength and will to succeed."

Related story: Pro: Tall people have an advantage

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