Jim Henson's Biography

Jim Henson was born on September 24, 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi as James MurrayHenson. He enjoyed watching T.V. showa like Kukla, Fran and Olie and Punch and Judy. He also liked listening to radio shows like The Shadow, and The Green Hornet The first movie he ever saw was The Wizard of Oz, he later reported biening terrified of the MGM lion. In 1950 his family got there first T.V. In College he joined the puppet club. He started a show called, "Sam and Friends," where he met his wife Jane. He got the idea for Muppets when he took his moms old green coat and turned it into what we know today as Kermit the Frog. Muppets are in between marionettes and puppets. He later went on to do experimentle short films like "Timepiece." Then he went on to making the most famous childrens show, "Sesame Street." Where he brought charecters to the minds and hearts of children like me, such as, Kermit, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Snuffy, Elmo, Cookkie monster, Tully, and The Count, and dozens more. After that the Muppets and Jim became famous, they would star on shows like Ed Sulivan, and Roulf was on The Jimmy Dean show. So it was about time that Jime started, "The Muppet Show." The Muppet Show was a half hour show that would bring you on the stage of the Muppets. Each week a new celebrity would be on the show. Jim got stars like, Julie Andrews, Vincent Price, Gida Rynder and The "Star Wars" cast to be on the show, (Darth Vader was played by Gonzo.) Now Jim had the hole muppet gang, there was Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie the Bear, Gonzo the Great, Scooter, Roulf, and dozens of, of, well just dozens of things. The Muppets were big. So Jim went on to direct a new Muppet movie called, " The Muppet Movie." After that he made "The Great Muppet Caper" and his good friend Frank Oz went to direct "The Muppets take Madhatan." Then Jim wanted to do a diffrent type of movie. So he teamed up with Frank Oz and made "The Dark Crystal." It was a fantasy movie about two species sppliting, the skexses adt the mystics. The movie showed just what the Henson company could do. "The Dark Crystal brought new puppet technolgies into the world. After that he made another fantasy film called, "Labyrinth." It's about a girl named Sarah(Jennifer Conloy) who wishes her babie brother would be taken away by goblins. The goblin King does so(playedby David Bowie) But now Sarah realives what she has done and has to go threw a Labyrinth full of strange creatures to get him back. This film introduced, radio controlled puppets. It was a huge step in puppet making. After that Jim made T.V. shows like "The Storyteller" and "Fraggel Rock." He also made a show called, "The Jim Henson hour." An hour of Jim Henson's work. But sadly Jim Henson died on May 16, 1990. At Jims funeral he didn't want anyone to wear black. The Jim Henson company is now woned by his son Brian. With a mix of Frank Oz and Brian Henson the Henson company will still have a magic touch.

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