James Maury " Jim " Henson ( September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990 ) was an American puppeteer, best known as the creator of The Muppets.

* 1936 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, and producer, founded The Jim Henson Company ( d. 1990 )

* September 24 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, filmmaker, and television producer ( The Muppets ) ( d. 1990 )

The Muppet Show is an American primetime television show produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets.

Jim Henson ( 1936 – 1990 )— artist, puppeteer, film director and producer — created elaborate imaginary worlds filled with unique characters, objects, environments and even languages and cultures.

* Jim Henson, puppeteer

Henson and Oz also frequently worked in film, including directing and puppeteer work in the 1982 film The Dark Crystal and the 1986 film Labyrinth.

Although he may be best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand, he became a national television personality starting in 1957, rising to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit " Big Bad John " and his television series, The Jimmy Dean Show, which also gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national media exposure.

After learning that the Muppets were used on Sesame Street, he rejoined Henson and Oz as a puppeteer, beginning in the second season.

Fran Brill, the first female puppeteer for the Muppets, joined the Henson organization in 1970, and originated the character Prairie Dawn.

Several people involved in the show from its beginnings died during this period: Jim Henson in 1990 at the age of 53 " from a runaway strep infection gone stubbornly, foolishly untreated "; songwriter Joe Raposo from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma fifteen months earlier ; long-time cast member Northern Calloway of cardiac arrest in January 1990 ; puppeteer Richard Hunt of AIDS in early 1992 ; CTW founder and producer David Connell of bladder cancer in 1995 ; director Jon Stone of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1997 ; and writer Jeff Moss of colon cancer in 1998.

In 1977, Gold joined The Muppet Show during the show's second season and was quickly trained by Jim Henson as a puppeteer, becoming the only British puppeteer regularly employed on the show.

When Jerry Nelson left the Muppets citing health reasons, Muppeteer Steve Whitmire ( also a puppeteer for Sesame Street ) took over adding yet another new role to his credits ; his first two were that of Kermit the Frog ( Jim Henson ) and Beaker ( Richard Hunt ).

Martin P. Robinson ( born March 9, 1954 ) is a puppeteer for the Jim Henson Company.

The inspiration for the seats was taken by Björn Envall from The Muppet Show's Pigs in Space, a sketch by the late puppeteer Jim Henson.

Interested representatives from movie studios and television networks regularly toured the lab as did musicians Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel, puppeteer Jim Henson and animation legends Chuck Jones and Shamus Culhane.

The Jim Henson Company, an American entertainment organization, traces its origins to the founding of Muppets, Inc. in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets.

Brian Henson was the animatronic puppeteer and provided his voice.

Sam and Friends was an early live-action / puppet television show created by puppeteer Jim Henson and his eventual wife Jane.

* Jim Henson, American puppeteer ( 1990 )

Drew Massey is a puppeteer for The Jim Henson Company for the Muppets and has performed in many TV shows, movies, and TV commercials.

The show is performed by a single puppeteer inside the booth, known since Victorian times as a " Professor " or " Punchman ," and assisted sometimes by a " Bottler ", who corrals the audience outside the booth, introduces the performance and collects the money (" the bottle ").

In the latter half of the 18th century, marionette companies began to give way to glove-puppet shows, performed from within a narrow, lightweight booth by one puppeteer, usually with an assistant, or " bottler ," to gather a crowd and collect money.

He was originally performed by puppeteer Frank Oz, although in recent years he has been performed by Eric Jacobson.

He saw shadow theatre performed during a party in his honour and he was said to be so impressed with it that he took the puppeteer back to his palace in Istanbul where his 21-year-old son, later Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, developed an interest in the plays.

She was a puppeteer and voice actress for The Muppet Show, for four seasons from 1977, and later for Sesame Street, and she has performed voice and puppet work on various other Muppet films, albums and television specials.

He also performed the character Riff on Allegra's Window, and was an animatronic puppeteer for Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The block was later re-branded as the " B-Zone ", hosted by Taylor, and then re-branded again as the popular " B-Zone ", hosted by PJ Katie ( Jennifer Racicot ) and Zeke, a curious creature from outer space ( performed by puppeteer Todd Doldersun ).

The wisecracking Crypt Keeper, who was voiced by John Kassir and performed by puppeteer Van Snowden, would then introduce the episode with intentionally hackneyed puns ( e. g. his frequent greeting to viewers: " Hello, Boils and Ghouls ").

Zaloom cowrote the script and was head puppeteer and performed multiple voices for the film.

* Richard Hunt ( puppeteer ) ( 1951 – 1992 ), puppeteer who performed a number of the Muppets

Although he appeared as a computer-generated image, Waldo was not " animated " in the usual sense, but performed live ; his image was generated in real time in synchrony with a physical Waldo-puppet connected to the computer and controlled by a puppeteer, with the image then being composited using bluescreen technology onto the scene Waldo was part of.

He has composed and performed with an ensemble of microtonal instruments of his own design and also worked as a shadow puppeteer, tuning theorist, filmmaker, world music radio DJ and concert promoter.

The band has collaborated and performed with numerous artists, such as Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Jane Powell, Henri Salvador, Chavela Vargas, New York performer Joey Arias, puppeteer Basil Twist, Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, filmmaker Gus Van Sant, Courtney Taylor Taylor of The Dandy Warhols, clarinetist and conductor Norman Leyden, Japanese legend Hiroshi Wada, Italian actress and songwriter Alba Clemente, DJ Johnny Dynell and Chi Chi Valenti, NPR White House Correspondent Ari Shapiro, the original cast of Sesame Street, March Fourth Marching Band, the Bonita Vista High School Marching Band from Chula Vista, California, and the Pacific Youth Choir of Portland, Oregon.

The band has collaborated and performed with numerous artists, such as Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Jane Powell, Henri Salvador, Chavela Vargas, New York performer Joey Arias, puppeteer Basil Twist, Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, filmmaker Gus Van Sant, Courtney Taylor Taylor of The Dandy Warhols, clarinetist and conductor Norman Leyden, Japanese legend Hiroshi Wada, Italian actress and songwriter Alba Clemente, DJ Johnny Dynell and Chi Chi Valenti, NPR White House Correspondent Ari Shapiro, the original cast of Sesame Street, March Fourth Marching Band, the Bonita Vista High School Marching Band from Chula Vista, California, and the Pacific Youth Choir of Portland, Oregon.

* Born: Carroll Spinney, American puppeteer who performed the role of " Big Bird " on TV's Sesame Street, and was the voice for " Oscar the Grouch ", in Waltham, Massachusetts ; and Ugly Dave Gray ( Graham David Taylor ), Australian TV actor and game show host

On Sesame Street, Vogel served as the assistant puppeteer for Ernie, performing either one or both hands while Steve Whitmire performed the head and vocal.

Sarah Burgess ( born 7 June 1970 ) is a puppeteer, actress and vocal artist whose roles include Trixie on the television series LazyTown, the voice of Stingy for the UK version of Lazytown, Brassy in the CBeebies series Space Pirates, puppeteer on the West End production of Doctor Dolittle and has performed as an actress and puppeteer in many productions for the Little Angel Puppet Theatre in the UK.

She was a puppeteer in the films The Great Muppet Caper ( 1981 ) and The Dark Crystal ( 1982 ), and she appeared in various other Muppet series and specials.

Redican started his career as a puppeteer, performing with various partners at birthday parties and church functions, before joining Tom Vandenburg to perform two family shows at The Toronto Centre for the Arts on Dupont street: The Old Fisherman and A Day At Rotten Cheese Gulch.

In the show, he began experimenting with techniques that would change the way puppetry had been used on television, including using the frame defined by the camera shot to allow the puppeteer to work from off-camera.

In 1954, he began working at WQED, a Pittsburgh public television station, as a puppeteer on a local children's show The Children's Corner.

* Japanese puppeteer Kinosuke Takeda produced three Supermarionation styled television series between 1960 and 1970 including Spaceship Silica, Galaxy Boy Troop and Aerial City 008.

* Pantopuck-He was the first puppeteer on television.

Australian puppeteer Norman Hetherington was famous for his marionette, Mr. Squiggle who featured on an Australian Broadcasting Commission television program for many years from 1 July 1959.

Robert Emerson " Bob " Clampett ( May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984 ) was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil.

Shari Lewis ( January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998 ) was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children's television show host, most popular during the 1960s and 1990s.

She is best known for her work as a puppeteer on television and for roles in musical theatre in the West End.

She was a founder and lead puppeteer for the satirical television show Spitting Image from 1984 to 1986 and occasionally thereafter.

From 1984 to 1986, and occasionally thereafter, Gold was a lead puppeteer and voice on the satirical television show Spitting Image and was the lead singer ( as Nancy Reagan ) on their first single, " Da Do Run Ron ", a pastiche of the Ronettes ' " Da Do Run Run ", released in 1984.

Gold is featured as a guest puppeteer, portraying the character of Babs ( the female termite ), on Transmission: Impossible with Ed and Oucho on BBC 2 television.

In the United States, sock puppeteer Shari Lewis was well known for her television show Lamb Chop's Play-Along featuring the sock puppets Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse, and Hush Puppy.

Sid Krofft ( born 30 July 1929 ) is a Canadian / American puppeteer and television producer.

Paul Finley Zaloom ( born December 14, 1951 ) is an American actor and puppeteer, best known for his role as the character Beakman on the television show Beakman's World.

* Shari Lewis ( 1933 – 1998 ), Jewish American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children's television show host

Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love ( August 7, 1916 – June 21, 2008 ) was an American puppeteer, costume designer, and actor in children's television and on Broadway.

Since the Muppets began on television, it has always been a standard technique for Muppeteers to perform by watching the characters on a monitor screen rather than by watching the puppet itself, so this arrangement required little adjustment either for the puppeteer performing Waldo or for the puppeteers performing the characters he interacted with.