Jim Henson - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)
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Jim Henson - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography
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Jim Henson - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Actor, Producer, Writer, Director, Operator.
September 24, 1936, Greenville, Mississippi - May 16, 1990, New York - American puppeteer, actor, producer, screenwriter and director.
He spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi; in the late 1940s, his family moved to Hyatsville, Maryland, near Washington.
While still in school, Henson came to local television in 1954, where he worked on a children's morning program. In 1955, while studying at the University of Maryland, he was invited to the Sam and Friends puppet show. For this show, where Henson worked for six years, he designed muppet dolls, including Kermit the Frog, the most famous Muppet. Henson himself has voiced Kermit all his life. In 1959, he married Jane Nibel, a student at the same University of Maryland. During their marriage, they had five children: Lisa (born 1960), Cheryl (born 1962), Brian (born 1963), John (1965), Heather (born 1970); all five participated in one way or another in different projects of their father.
After leaving the show, Henson took up advertising production. In 1963, he and his wife moved to New York, where they founded the Muppets Corporation. When Jane left the business for a while to look after the children, Henson hired screenwriter Jerry Jule and puppeteer Frank Oz. The friendship and collaboration between Henson, Oz and Juhl will continue for twenty-seven years. In 1964-1968, Henson switched to cinema, making experimental films. His short film "Time Lapse" was nominated for an Oscar in 1966.
When the new Sesame Street children's educational program was being launched in 1969, Henson was invited. For this program, he made several puppet characters. Henson and Oz voiced two friends who lived on Sesame Street: Ernie and Bert, respectively. Kermit the Frog was also a regular character, playing the role of a reporter. The success of the program allowed Henson to quit advertising.
Henson and his team have tried to expand their audience by making numbers not only for children but also for adults. They appeared on the first Saturday Night Live comedy shows from October 1975 to January 1976.
Deciding to make his own show, Henson directed two pilot episodes: in 1974 - The Muppets Valentine Show with actress Mia Farrow as a guest star, and in 1975 - The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence. Finally, on September 27, 1976, Henson's own program, The Muppets Show, began airing on Britain's Associated TeleVision. In The Muppet Show, Henson's puppets became musical theater actors, with Kermit as director and entertainer. The program included both the old muppets that appeared in other programs (Kermit, the pianist the dog Rolf, the stuntman Gonzo) and the new ones (the actress Miss Piggy, the comedian Fozzie the bear). Many of the characters were voiced by Henson and Oz. The program won BAFTA and Emmy awards, and in 1978 Time magazine named The Muppets Show "the most popular entertainment program ever. produced on earth at the present time. "
Jim Henson was invited to voice Master Yoda in Star Wars. Episode V. The Empire Strikes Back ”, but he refused and convinced George Lucas that Frank Oz would better fill the role.
Three years after the start of The Muppets, Henson's dolls appeared in the feature-length film The Muppets, in which Henson, in addition to acting as a producer, served as a producer. In 1981, Henson directed his second feature film, The Great Puppet Journey. In the same year, The Muppet Show was closed as Henson decided to concentrate entirely on filming.
Together with Oz Henson in 1982 he directed a feature-length film not related to the Muppets. It was a fantasy film "Dark Crystal", which combined dolls and outdoor shooting. In 1983, Henson created the Fregles Rock program, which features muppet puppets, but completely different from those in the Muppets Show. A year later, another film about Kermit and his friends was released: "The Muppets Conquer Manhattan." It was directed by Oz and Henson was the voice actor and executive producer. In 1984, the first episode of the children's animated series "Baby Dolls" was released, where Kermit, Gonzo, Piggy and others appear as babies.
In the same year, Henson visited Moscow, where he shot a film about Sergei Obraztsov. He called the famous Soviet puppeteer his teacher.
Henson's second fantasy film Labyrinth, featuring both live actors and puppets, was released in 1986. Jennifer Connelly and singer David Bowie starred, scripted by Monty Python comic troupe Terry Jones, and executive produced by George Lucas.
For several weeks in 1988, Henson's program "The Storyteller" was released, in which people and dolls acted out the plots of European fairy tales. In 1989, The Jim Henson Hour program also did not last long, which was also soon closed.
