February 14, 2011

Voice Actor - Frank Oz

Frank Oz (Born May 25, 1944) is a British-born American film director, actor and puppeteer who is known for creating many characters for Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and for directing films including the 1986 Little Shop Of Horrors remake and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He is also the operator and voice of Yoda.


 
Though he's own as a puppeteer first, he is also a master voice artist. Best recognized for performing with Jim Henson's Muppets. His characters have included Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam the Eagle on The Muppet Show, and Grover, Cookie Monster and Bert on Sesame Street, among many others.

In addition to performing a variety of characters, Oz has been one of the primary collaborators responsible for the development of the Muppets over the last 30 years. Oz has performed as a puppeteer in over 75 movies, 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, though he has retired from the Muppets. His Muppets were taken over by Eric Jacobson, though Oz still performs his characters on occasion. He also worked with the puppets on the movie Labyrinth, starring David Bowie.

Oz is also well known as the performer of Jedi Master Yoda from George Lucas' Star Wars series. Oz performed the voice and puppet for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, and provided the voice of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) Yoda in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The conversion to CGI was met with some criticism among fans but Oz himself said that was "exactly what [Lucas] should have done."[6] Oz had a great deal of creative input on the character and was himself responsible for creating the character's trademark syntax (whose nature some professional syntacticians discuss in their spare time.[7] George Lucas was so impressed by Oz's performance as Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back that he tried to get him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Here's just a couple of the hundreds of performances he did with Jim Henson, here's Frank as Cookie Monster and Fozzie Bear:





In 1964, while waiting to appear on The Jack Parr Show, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Juhl, and Don Sahlin colorfully painted and decorated a set of pipes found in their dressing room's utility closet. Known as the "Muppet Pipes," this historical piece of "affectionate anarchy," as Frank Oz calls it, was excavated and is now a part of NBC's 30 Rock Studio Tour.

You can watch this morning's segment from the Today Show below where Frank Oz explains the history of these pipes and helps cut the ribbon on this new part of the studio tour:





Oz also appeared on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams that evening, and it includes a more lengthy interview with him. Watch it here:




Here's a partial voice acting credit list

Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, The (1999, Live Action/Puppet Film) Bert
Cookie Monster
Grover
Follow That Bird (1985, Live Action/Puppet Film) Bert
Cookie Monster
Grover
Frog Prince, The (1971, Live Action/Puppet Special) Frogs
Jim Henson's Animal Show with Stinky and Jake (1994, Puppet Series) Sam the Eagle
Little Muppet Monsters (1985, Animated/Puppet Series) Fozzie Bear
Monsters, Inc. (2001, Computer Animated Film) Fungus
Muppet Christmas Carol, The (1992, Live Action/Puppet Film) Animal
Fozzie Bear (Fozziwig)
George the Janitor
Miss Piggy (Emily Cratchit)
Sam the Eagle
Vegetable Vendor
Wagon Driver
Muppet Family Christmas, A (1987, Puppet TV Special) Animal
Bert
Cookie Monster
Fozzie Bear
Grover
Marvin Suggs
Miss Piggy
Sam the Eagle
Muppet Show, The (1976, Live Action/Puppet Series) Animal
Fozzie Bear
George
Marvin Suggs
Miss Piggy
Sam the Eagle
Muppet Treasure Island (1996, Live Action/Puppet Film) Animal
Benjamina Gunn / Miss Piggy
Mr. Samuel Arrow / Sam the Eagle
Squire Trelawney / Fozzie Bear
Muppets from Space (1999, Live Action/Puppet Film) Animal
Fozzie Bear
Miss Piggy
Sam the Eagle
Muppets Take Manhattan, The (1984, Live Action/Puppet Film) Animal
Cookie Monster
Fozzie Bear
Miss Piggy
Sam the Eagle
Muppets Tonight (1996, Live Action/Puppet Series) Animal
Fozzie Bear
Miss Piggy
Sam the Eagle
MuppetVision 3D (1990, Attraction) Fozzie Bear
Miss Piggy
Sam the Eagle
Saturday Night Live (1975, Live Action Series) The Mighty Favog
Sesame Street (1969, Puppet/Live Action/Animated Series) Bert
Cookie Monster
Grover
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999, Live Action Film) Yoda
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002, Live Action Film) Yoda
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005, Live Action Film) Yoda
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Live Action Film) Yoda
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi (1983, Live Action Film) Yoda

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