<P> The film screened alongside Michael Jackson's short film Michael Jackson's Ghosts in select theaters around the world . </P> <P> Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke) is an obese, upper - class lawyer living with his wife Heidi (Lucinda Jenney) and their daughter Linda (Bethany Joy Lenz). Billy recently defended an underworld crime boss named Richie "The Hammer" Ginelli (Joe Mantegna) in court and are now celebrating his acquittal for murder . The town he lives in is hosting a carnival, run by gypsies that some of the townspeople hold obvious prejudice against . Though Billy himself doesn't seem to . </P> <P> One night, while Billy is driving, Heidi, in an attempt to persuade him to forget about his obsession with food, performs fellatio on him . Distracted, Billy accidentally runs over Suzanne Lempke (Irma St. Paule), an elderly gypsy woman, as she leaves a local pharmacy . Since Judge Cary Rossington (John Horton) is a personal friend of his, he soft - pedals the case, and no charges are filed against him (the Sheriff also lied on the stand for him). Outraged by the injustice, Suzanne's 106 - year - old father, Tadzu Lempke (Michael Constantine) curses Billy by touching his face and saying the word "thinner". Billy begins to lose weight rapidly, despite him not working out or sticking to his diet . Heidi, fearing the weight loss may be due to cancer, brings in Dr. Mike Houston (Sam Freed), with whom Billy soon begins to suspect his wife is having an affair . </P> <P> It is revealed that Tadzu Lempke also cursed Judge Cary and Police Chief Duncan Hopely (Daniel von Bargen), who helped him avoid punishment in court . Cary, whose curse was "Lizard", is now growing scales all over his body . Chief Duncan, whose curse was "Leper" becomes mutated with large boils and eventually commits suicide . Billy continues losing weight and calculates that he only has a few weeks to live . He begins eating even more compulsively to prolong the starvation . Billy looks for the gypsy carnival, to get Lempke to remove the curse, but they have gone . </P>

Who played the old gypsy man in thinner