The characters on Sam and Friends were forerunners of the Muppets, and the show included a prototype of Henson's most famous character Kermit the Frog. Rowlf was brought to life with the assistance of puppet builder Don Sahlin and puppeteer Frank Oz. Henson was born James Maury Henson on September 24, 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi, the younger of two children of Paul Ransom Henson (1904–1994), an agronomist for the United States Department of Agriculture, and his wife Betty Marcella (née Brown, 1904–1972). James Maury „Jim“ Henson (* 24. Jones worked on the project with the blessing of the Henson family and the Jim Henson Legacy. Er erlangte vor allem durch die Sesamstraße und die Muppet Show weltweite Bekanntheit. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. [34] By 1990, he had completed production on the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World and the Disney-MGM Studios attraction Muppet*Vision 3D and he was developing film ideas and a television series entitled Muppet High. He won fame for his characters, particularly Kermit the Frog, Rowlf the Dog, Alex Goldman, and Ernie. The Jim Henson Company retains the Creature Shop as well as the rest of its film and television library, including Fraggle Rock, Farscape, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. [citation needed], Oz directed The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) which grossed $25.5 million domestically and ranked one of the top 40 films of 1984. Henson's legacy as a director, producer, writer, puppeteer and innovator has continued for decades to come, due in no small part to his wife of more than 30 years, the late Jane (Nebel) Henson. [13] He remained at WRC from 1954 to 1961. From 2010 to 2012, he spent time combing through the Henson Archives with the assistance of Karen Falk. The Henson family isn’t alone in keeping their father’s dream alive: The Walt Disney Company has introduced a whole new generation of kids and parents to Henson's puppet pals, releasing the blockbuster movie The Muppets in 2011. Jones is a devoted member of the Jim Henson generation, having been two years old when Sesame Street premiered in 1969 and nine when The Muppet Show debuted in 1976. The program scored a local Emmy Award in 1958, the same year that Henson founded the Jim Henson Company. Lucas lobbied unsuccessfully to have Oz nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His moving yet celebratory funeral included a musical puppet performance. At U-Md., he became even more talented", "In the Gallery at the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library – MSPAL | UMD Libraries", "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement", "Jim Henson Exhibit, Leland, Mississippi", https://arboretum.umd.edu/JimHensonMemorial, "Fear the Turtle sculptures: Guide to locations", "Keep it in Motion – Classic Animation Revisited: 'Overtime, "Disney Legends Class of 2011: Modern princesses, the Muppet master and more", "Muppets Creator Jim Henson Honored on 75th Birthday", "JIM HENSON's MUPPETS: New Google Doodle celebrates late creator's 75th birthday", "With Muppets on-screen, puppet center works to secure Henson legacy", "Nation's Largest Puppetry Center to Open Jim Henson Wing in Atlanta", "It Belongs in a Museum: The New Henson Exhibit in Atlanta", "Magruder Park now home to memorial honoring Jim Henson's legacy", "Psychedelia, clubbing and Muppets: inside the world of Jim Henson", "Peek Inside the Magical New Jim Henson Exhibit", "The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited", "OKC to celebrate the life and legacy of Jim Henson at the American Banjo Museum", https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/17/arts/an-aggressive-infection-abrupt-and-overwhelming.html, The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, Art Directors Club biography and portrait, Jim Henson Biography – Book Summary and Quotes, The Jim Henson Works at the University of Maryland, Early Jim Henson films in the AT&T Archives, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. [7] He was raised as a Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi, before moving with his family to University Park, Maryland, near Washington, DC, in the late 1940s. Shortly after admission, he stopped breathing and was rushed into the intensive care unit. [10][11], Henson began working for WTOP-TV (now WUSA-TV) in 1954 while attending Northwestern High School, creating puppets for a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show. [8], Henson married Jane Nebel in 1959 and their children are Lisa (b. Jim Henson: The Biography is a wonderful look at the life of an amazing, creative genius. He also directed the original "C Is For Cookie" and Tales from Muppetland, a short series of TV movie specials that were comic retellings of classic fairy tales aimed at a young audience and hosted by Kermit the Frog. He believed that television puppets needed to have "life and sensitivity"[14] and began making characters from flexible, fabric-covered foam rubber, allowing them to express a wider array of emotions at a time when many puppets were made of carved wood. 1960), Cheryl (b. The theater and Visual and Performing Arts Academy at his alma mater, The Jim Henson Exhibit, located in Leland, Mississippi, features an assortment of original Muppet characters, official certificates from the, The classes of 1994, 1998, and 1999 at the, In 2003, Jim Henson was honored at the annual, Our Atlan, Thibaut Berland, and Damien Ferrie wrote, directed, and animated a 3D tribute to Henson entitled, On August 9, 2011, Jim Henson posthumously received the. Another Muppet named Wontkins is in front of its barrel. He won the Emmy Award twice for his involvement in The Storyteller and The Jim Henson Hour. Henson’s last project was Muppet*Vision 3D, a multimedia attraction installed at Disney theme parks in California and Florida. [38], Henson appeared with Kermit on The Arsenio Hall Show on May 4, 1990. Dr. David Gelmont announced that Henson had died from Streptococcus pneumoniae, an infection that causes bacterial pneumonia. He appeared as a guest on many shows, including The Steve Allen Show, The Jack Paar Program, and The Ed Sullivan Show. Jane quit performing to raise their children, and Henson hired writer Jerry Juhl in 1961 and puppet performer Frank Oz in 1963 to replace her. Jane also helped run the Jim Henson Foundation, founded in 1982 by Jim and the couple's daughter, Cheryl. The hit series, with Kermit as the host, premiered in 1976. 1961), Brian (b. [6] A marionette's arms are manipulated by strings, but Henson used rods to move his Muppets' arms, allowing greater control of expression. (Henson and Jane met in college and married in 1959; they separated in 1986, but never divorced.) 1963), John (1965–2014),[35] and Heather (b. He spent several months in Europe, where he was inspired by European puppet performers who looked on their work as an art form. He graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics. "[citation needed] Wilkins and Wontkins would appear in a vast series of commercials, many of which can be found in a 36-minute collection on YouTube [1]; the Jim Henson company has posted a short selection of them [2]. [20] He and Oz developed a close friendship and a performing partnership that lasted until Henson's death; their teamwork is particularly evident in their portrayals of Bert and Ernie, Kermit and Miss Piggy, and Kermit and Fozzie Bear. Henson begann früh im Leben mit Puppen speziell fürs Fernsehen zu experimentieren. An Aggressive Infection, Abrupt and Overwhelming, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/17/arts/an-aggressive-infection-abrupt-and-overwhelming.html, This article is about the puppeteer. He also continued to address darker, more mature themes with the folk tale and mythology oriented show The Storyteller (1988), which won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program. Around the same time, Henson began experimenting with short films, including 1965's Academy Award-nominated Time Piece. On May 12, 1990, Henson traveled to Ahoskie, North Carolina, with his daughter Cheryl to visit his father and stepmother. Other major motion pictures followed, too, including 1982’s The Dark Crystal, a groundbreaking film mixing puppetry and animatronics, and 1986’s Labyrinth, which was produced by George Lucas and starred David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. He disclosed to his publicist that he was tired and had a sore throat, but that he believed it would soon go away. In 1975, at Grade's ATV Studios, Henson and his crew created Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, Gonzo, Scooter and the rest of The Muppet Show ensemble. "[citation needed] and Wontkins responds gruffly, "I've never tasted it! Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets, began working as a puppeteer in college on the show "Sam and Friends," where Kermit the Frog made his debut… He also worked on a variety of inserts for the numbers 2 through 12, including the films "Dollhouse"; "Number Three Ball Film"; the stop-motions "King of Eight" and "Queen of Six"; the cut-out animation "Eleven Cheer"; and the computer animation "Nobody Counts To 10." Well before his teen years, Henson was performing puppetry for audiences, including his fellow Cub Scouts. He produced The Muppet Show during this period, premiering the series in 1976. Jones is a devoted member of the Jim Henson generation, having been two years old when Sesame Street premiered in 1969 and nine when The Muppet Show debuted in 1976. During the later years of his life, he founded the Jim Henson Foundation and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in home economics, after which he produced coffee advertisements and developed experimental films. He released five studio albums between 1966 and 1973, before his untimely death in 1973. Jones also spent time interviewing many of Henson's colleagues for the book — including Jane Henson, Steve Whitmire, Da… Cooney frequently praised Henson's work, and PBS called him "the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service. Henson was born on September 24, 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi. The show featured Kermit as host and a variety of other characters, notably Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, and Fozzie Bear, along with other characters such as Animal. [16] The American networks rejected the series in 1976, believing that Muppets would appeal only to a child audience. Henson was having trouble breathing when he woke up at around 2:00 a.m. on May 15, 1990, and began coughing up blood. © 2021 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. It was first reported in July 2010 that Brian Jay Jones had sold a biography of Jim Henson to Ballantine Books. Involved in a Copyright-Infringement Suit? The script remained in the Henson Company archives until it was adapted in the 2012 graphic novel Jim Henson's Tale of Sand. We tried to sell things by making people laugh. For the escaped slave, see, From 1994–2011, the category was split into, Bernie Brillstein, Where Did I Go Right? He produced The Cube in 1969. "[27], The Muppets appeared in their first theatrical feature film The Muppet Movie in 1979. Henson's teammates sometimes compared his role to that of Kermit: a shy, gentle boss with "a whim of steel"[21] who ran things like "an explosion in a mattress factory. The Muppets, including an early version of Kermit the Frog, were born from Sam and Friends. [4][5] His ashes were scattered near Taos, New Mexico. He posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991, and was named a Disney Legend in 2011. Seeing enormous potential for puppets in this medium, he began his career in Washington, D.C. local television. Then, in 1969, Henson teamed up with Children’s Television Workshop to produce the now-classic children's show on PBS, Sesame Street. The producers of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) asked him to aid make-up artist Stuart Freeborn in the creation and articulation of Yoda. The Muppet Show also led to feature films for Henson, including The Muppet Movie in 1979, and an animated TV spin-off, Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies, that garnered four consecutive Emmys (Outstanding Animated Program). He was 53. The next year, he returned to television with The Jim Henson Hour which mixed lighthearted Muppet fare with more risqué material. These television broadcasts greatly increased his exposure, leading to hundreds of commercial appearances by Henson characters throughout the '60s. He produced a series of counting films for the numbers 1 through 10 which always ended with a baker (voiced by Henson) falling down the stairs while carrying the featured number of desserts. Comparisons are often made (as they are in this book) with Walt Disney, and rightly so. [8] He remembered the arrival of the family's first television as "the biggest event of his adolescence",[9] being heavily influenced by radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the early television puppets of Burr Tillstrom on Kukla, Fran and Ollie and Bil and Cora Baird. On May 16, 1990, Henson died at New York Hospital at 1:21 am. The Henson-directed The Great Muppet Caper (1981) followed, and Henson decided to end the Muppet Show to concentrate on making films,[6] though the Muppet characters continued to appear in TV movies and specials. Members of Henson's growing puppeteering team also appeared on The Today Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. The Dark Crystal (1982) with Frank Oz, "trying to go toward a sense of realism—toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive". He was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and raised in Leland, Mississippi, and University Park, Maryland.[3]. [16] The SNL writers were not comfortable writing for the characters, and they frequently disparaged Henson's creations; Michael O'Donoghue quipped, "I won't write for felt. Henson was so grateful for this break that he offered Jimmy Dean a 40-percent interest in his production company, but Dean declined, stating that Henson deserved all the rewards for his own work, a decision of conscience that Dean never regretted. Among the most popular of Henson's commercials was a series for the local Wilkins Coffee company in Washington, DC,[16] in which his Muppets were able to get away with a greater level of slapstick violence than might have been acceptable with human actors and eventually worked into many acts on The Muppet Show. This video is about Jim Henson Biography in English. As virtually anyone remotely familiar with American television knows, Jim Henson was the most popular children's entertainer of the 20th century, a gentle genius and master puppeteer who pulled off the… Read Full Biography. He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded visage was recognized around the world, but most people got to know him only through the iconic characters he created: Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, Big Bird. [47], Sesame Workshop acquired the Sesame Street characters in 2000. 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