Jim Henson was an American puppeteer, producer, and director known for creating the Muppets, including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. He revolutionized puppetry by using rods in the puppets’ arms for more realistic movements. Henson’s career began with the success of Sam and Friends, and he later created Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. He also gave creative input to Yoda in Star Wars. Henson died in 1990 at the age of 53.
Jim Henson is an American puppeteer, producer, and director best remembered for his work on the long-running children’s educational television show, Sesame Street. He gained acclaim and fame as the creator of the Muppets, which are lifelike and memorable puppet characters that include Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. Jim Henson added an innovative approach to puppetry by using rods in the puppets’ arms which allowed for more realistic movements than the earlier hand puppet or string puppet.
James Maury Henson was born on September 24, 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi. He was raised primarily in Leland, Mississippi and then the family moved to Hyattsville, Maryland. After high school, Jim Henson attended the University of Maryland, College Park, and majored in studio arts with the intention of becoming a commercial artist. However, when he took a puppet class, he discovered a number of classes involving textiles and crafts. Henson moved on to the College of Home Economics and graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science in home economics.
While still a college freshman, Jim Henson was asked by a local television station to create a five-minute puppet show called Sam and Friends, and the program was a success. This show featured Henson’s puppet character Kermit the Frog and even in these short programs Jim Henson experimented with innovative puppetry using new camera angles and realistic puppet fabrics. Puppets of him were unique in that they expressed emotions. For example, the puppets’ hands were expressive and flexible as they had rods inside them and were not rigidly controlled by the usual puppet strings.
Another Maryland freshman, Jane Nebel, helped Jim with the puppets in Sam and Friends and she and Jim dated and then married in 1959. Jim and Jane had five children: three girls and two boys. Sam and Friends ran for six years and Henson also did many short projects like commercials and talk shows that featured his puppets, or more accurately, the Muppets.
Sesame Street hit the airwaves in 1969 with Jim Henson’s Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster, Guy Smiley and the Big Bird characters. Originally the puppet characters weren’t supposed to get that much attention on Sesame Street, but test audiences had loved Henson’s Muppets so much that the show ended up revolving around the puppets. The Muppet Show, starring Jim Henson’s characters Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, and the Swedish Chef, among others, made its television debut in 1976 and ran for five seasons. In 1979, The Muppet Movie was a hit in theaters, as was 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper.
Jim Henson specialized in science fiction and fantasy films and helped give creative input to the character Yoda in the Star Wars films. More Muppet movies and television shows like Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies appeared in the 1980s, and Henson also had a short-lived variety show, The Jim Henson Hour. Henson sold his company to Walt Disney in 1989 with the plan to have more time for creative work. In 1990, the film The Muppets at Walt Disney World was released, followed by a few other Muppet-Disney productions. Jim Henson died on May 16, 1990 at the age of 53 from organ failure caused by complications of toxic shock syndrome.
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