Frank Oz

Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; May 25, 1944) is an American puppeteer, filmmaker and actor.

He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Star Wars, as well as his directorial work in feature films and theater.

During his adolescence, Oz worked as an apprentice puppeteer in Oakland, California.

Oz was born on May 25, 1944, in Hereford, Herefordshire, England; the son of Frances (née Ghevaert; 1910–1989) and Isadore Oznowicz (1916–1998), both of whom were puppeteers.

Some of their puppets survived the war and were presented at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

His father was also a window trimmer.

His parents moved to England where the father joined the Dutch Brigades.

Oz's Dutch-Polish father was Jewish, and his Flemish mother was a Catholic.

They left England when he was six months old and lived in Belgium until he was five.

Oz and his family moved to Montana in 1951.

They eventually settled in Oakland, California.

Oz attended Oakland Technical High School and Oakland City College.

He worked as an apprentice puppeteer at Children's Fairyland as a teenager with the Vagabond Puppets, a production of the Oakland Recreation Department, where Lettie Connell was his mentor.

Oz performed as a puppeteer with Jim Henson’s Muppets.

As a teenager, he worked with the Vagabond Puppets at the Children's Fairyland of Oakland, which is how he first met Henson.

Despite his interest in journalism, Oz continued his career as a puppeteer when he was hired by Jim Henson in 1963 to work for The Jim Henson Company where he went on to perform several characters in multiple television series and specials.

He was 19 when he joined Henson in New York to work on the Muppets in 1963.

His characters have included Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle on The Muppet Show, and Cookie Monster, Bert and Grover on Sesame Street.

In addition to performing a variety of characters, Oz was one of the primary collaborators responsible for the development of the Muppets, known most notably for his chemistry with Jim Henson himself, performing in such pairings as: Ernie and Bert; Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog; Kermit and Miss Piggy; Kermit and Fozzie Bear; Kermit and Grover; Ernie and Cookie Monster; Rowlf the Dog and Fozzie Bear; Rowlf and Miss Piggy, and The Swedish Chef (Henson performed the head and voice, with Oz normally operating the hands).

Oz performed as a puppeteer in over 75 productions, including Labyrinth (as the Wiseman), video releases, and television specials, as well as countless other public appearances, episodes of Sesame Street, and other Jim Henson series.

His puppetry work spans from 1963 to the present, although he semi-retired from performing his Muppets characters in 2001 (continuing to perform on Sesame Street on a yearly basis through 2012).

Oz performed the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle on The Muppet Show (1976–1981), and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover on Sesame Street (1969–2013).

He also performed the character of Yoda in the Star Wars series, beginning with The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and reprising the role in six subsequent films and various media over the course of the next forty years.

Oz performed the puppet and provided the voice for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017).

His work as a director includes The Dark Crystal (1982), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), What About Bob? (1991), In & Out (1997), Death at a Funeral (2007), and an episode of the US television series Leverage (2011).

In 2001, his characters were taken over primarily by Eric Jacobson (with David Rudman as Cookie Monster).

Oz explained why he decided on leaving the Muppets in a 2007 interview:

""One was that I was a dad, I have four kids.

The reason was that I was constantly asked to do stuff.

And also, I'd done this for 30 years, and I'd never wanted to be a puppeteer in the first place.

I wanted to be a journalist, and really what I wanted to do was direct theatre and direct movies.

So it was more a slow progression, working with Jim, but I felt limited.

As an actor and a performer, you always feel limited because you're not the source of the creation, and I wanted to be the source.

I wanted to be the guy and give my view of the world.

And if I screw it up, I screw it up, but at least I tried.

And as a director, what you're really showing is you're showing the audience your view of the world...I've always enjoyed, more than anything else in the world, bringing things to life, whether it's characters or actors in a scene or moments in movies.

I've done so much with the puppets, that I'd always wanted to work with actors.""

Oz is also known as the performer of Jedi Master Yoda from George Lucas' Star Wars series.

Jim Henson had originally been contacted by Lucas about possibly performing Yoda.

Henson was preoccupied and instead suggested Oz be assigned as the chief puppeteer of the character, as well as a creative consultant.