The creator of the Muppets, James Maury Henson, born in 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi, was an American puppeteer, creative producer, filmmaker and director.
Henson was a creative child. Encouraged by his grandma, who was a painter, he started experimenting with making puppets as a teenager, and when he was 18, he got his first local show while still in high school.
TV puppeteers Burr Tillstrom, of the show Kukla, Fran and Ollie, as well as Bil and Cora Baird, from Life with Snarky Parker, became major creative influences on young Henson.
In 1954, Henson began performing with his puppets on a Washington local TV program on Saturday mornings.
This experience led to his own five-minute spot, Sam and Friends, on Washington D.C.’s local NBC affiliate just a year after. Created with his future wife, Jane Nebel, while they were students at the University of Maryland.
The show aired twice daily until 1961, and it had an early version of Kermit the Frog.
“Television was new then. I think they were just starting color television at that point. And I just loved it. I was very much in love with that whole form. And I wanted to work there. And I heard of a station that was looking for puppeteers so I made some puppets and I went down and auditioned. And got a job. And it was kind of that easy. Because then I was on the air regularly for the next eight years, in Washington. And during that time our style sort of came about,” Henson said.
During that time, in 1958, the Muppet idea started to take a better form, Henson chose the name “Muppet” to describe the characters that were a marionette and, at the same time, a hand puppet.
After graduation, Henson worked in TV commercials and some other spots on various television shows. Then in 1969 Henson started working with Children’s Television Workshop, and that was when Sesame Street started.
Henson voiced and operated Ernie and Kermit the Frog. “I suppose that he’s an alter ego, but he’s a little snarkier than I am, slightly wise. Kermit says things I hold myself back from saying.” Henson once said
The ‘70s saw the debut of The Muppet Show, which Henson struggled to create in a way that appealed to adults as well as children.
Henson found the support he needed with London-based TV producer Lord Lew Grade, and soon after, at Grade’s ATV Studios, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, Gonzo, Scooter, and the rest of The Muppets were created.
In the ‘80s, Henson worked on the TV shows Fraggle Rock, an NBC variety show, The Jim Henson Hour, and Jim Henson’s The Storyteller.
The Muppet Show was also made into movies. It began with The Muppet Movie (1979), followed by The Great Muppet Caper.
Henson directed other movies such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and he created the costumes for the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. His last project was Muppet-Vision 3D, a multimedia attraction installed at Disney theme parks in California and Florida.
In May 1990, Henson started feeling bad, and he thought it was a bad cold, but within a couple of weeks, his illness transformed into a serious bacterial infection, and Henson passed away on May 16. He was 53 years old.
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