Frank Oz Biography

Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; born May 25, 1944) is an English-born American voice actor, film director and puppeteer who created and performed the characters Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear along with Jim Henson in The Muppet Show, as well as Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover in Sesame Street. His work as a film director includes 1986's Little Shop of Horrors remake and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He is also the puppeteer and voice of Yoda (voice only in Episodes II and III) in the Star Wars film series.

Early life

Oz was born in Hereford, England, the son of Frances (née Ghevaert) and Isidore Oznowicz, both of whom were puppeteers. His parents moved to England after fighting the Nazis with the Dutch Brigades. Oz's Dutch/Polish father was Jewish and his Flemish mother was a lapsed Roman Catholic. Oz moved to Oakland, California, United States, with his parents when he was five years old. He attended Oakland Technical High School and Oakland City College. He worked for a time with the Vagabond Puppets, a production of the Oakland Recreation Department, where Lettie Connell was his mentor.

Career

Puppeteering

Oz is known for his work as a puppeteer, 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 Muppeteer in over 75 movies including Labyrinth, 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 full-time from the Muppets. His Muppets were taken over by Eric Jacobson and David Rudman in 2002, though Oz still performs his Sesame Street characters on occasion.

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 pre-occupied, and so Oz was assigned as chief puppeteer and as creative consultant. While other Henson alumni worked on the fabrication of Yoda, Oz performed the voice and puppet for Yoda in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Oz also provided the voice of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) Yoda in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: 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." Oz had a great deal of creative input on the character and was himself responsible for creating the character's trademark syntax. Oz reprised his vocal role as Yoda in Disney's Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.

Directing

Inspiration as a film-maker came to Oz upon a viewing of the film Touch of Evil, the director tells Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life.

I think it opened up my view of film"?that there's so much more that could be done. Actually, by breaking so many rules, he allowed other people to say, "Hey, I can maybe think of some stuff, too!" He just opened up the possibilities more for me. That's what he did.

Oz began his behind-the-camera work when he co-directed the fantasy film The Dark Crystal with long-time collaborator Jim Henson. The film featured the most advanced puppets ever created for a movie. Oz further employed those skills in directing 1984's The Muppets Take Manhattan, as well as sharing a screenwriting credit.

In 1986 he directed his first movie that did not involve Henson, Little Shop Of Horrors. The musical film starred Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene, as well as Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, John Candy, Christopher Guest, and a 15-foot-tall talking plant (voiced by Levi Stubbs) which at times required up to 40 puppeteers to operate. The film allowed Oz to show his ability to work with live actors, and led to opportunities to direct films that did not include puppetry.

Usually directing comedies, Oz went on to direct Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in 1988, starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, What About Bob? in 1991, starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss, and Housesitter in 1992 (all of which were scored by Miles Goodman). Later films include The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), In & Out (1997), Bowfinger (1999), The Score (2001), the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives, and the original Death at a Funeral (2007).

Acting

As an actor, Oz appeared in a bit part as Prison Storeroom Keeper in The Blues Brothers (1980), directed by John Landis. He also appeared in later Landis movies An American Werewolf in London, Spies Like Us, Trading Places and Innocent Blood. In 1998, Oz portrayed a warden in Blues Brothers 2000. In 2001 he had a minor part in the Pixar film Monsters, Inc. as Randall's scare assistant, Fungus. In 2005, he had a minor part in the Columbia film Zathura as the voice of the Robot.

Other cameos have included playing a surgeon in scenes cut from the theatrical release of Superman III, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan and several other Jim Henson-related films that did not involve just his puppeteering.

Significant collaborations

Landis has cast Oz in small roles in several of his movies. Oz played a corrections officer in Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000. He also had roles in An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Spies Like Us, and Innocent Blood. Even if he's not appeared in a Landis movie, his name is often spoken in the background. During airport scenes in Into the Night and Coming to America, there are announcements on the PA system requesting a 'Mr. Frank Oznowicz' to pick up the white courtesy phone. John Landis made a cameo in Oz's film The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Oz worked as a puppeteer, performing with Jim Henson's Muppets. They co-directed a film together, The Dark Crystal. Oz wrote and directed the Muppet film The Muppets Take Manhattan. He also worked with the puppets on several of Henson's films (both produced and directed by Henson), including Labyrinth, starring David Bowie.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Director	Puppeteer	Actor	Role	Notes
1979	The Muppet Movie				Fozzie Bear Miss Piggy Sam the Eagle Animal Additional voices	Voice
1980	The Blues Brothers				Corrections officer
	Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back				Yoda	Voice
1981	The Great Muppet Caper				Fozzie Bear Miss Piggy Sam the Eagle Animal Additional voices	Voice Also producer
	An American Werewolf in London				Mr. Collins
1982	The Dark Crystal				Aughra	Co-directed with Jim Henson
1983	Superman III				Surgeon	Deleted scene
	Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi				Yoda	Voice
	Trading Places				Booking cop
1984	The Muppets Take Manhattan				Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam the Eagle Animal Bert Cookie Monster Ocean Breeze Board member Additional voices	Also screenwriter
1985	Spies Like Us				Test monitor
	Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird				Bert Grover Cookie Monster	Voice
1986	Little Shop Of Horrors
	Labyrinth				The Wiseman
1988	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
1991	Muppet*Vision 3D				Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam the Eagle Animal Additional voices	Voice Theme park attraction
	What About Bob?
1992	Housesitter
	Innocent Blood				Pathologist
	The Muppet Christmas Carol				Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam the Eagle Animal Additional voices	Voice Also executive producer
1995	The Indian in the Cupboard
1996	Muppet Treasure Island				Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam the Eagle Animal Additional voices	Voice Also executive producer
1997	In & Out
1998	Blues Brothers 2000				Warden
1999	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace				Yoda	Voice
	Muppets from Space				Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam the Eagle Animal Additional voices
	Bowfinger
	The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland				Bert Grover Cookie Monster	Voice
2001	The Score
	Monsters, Inc.				Jeff Fungus	Voice role
2002	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones				Yoda
2004	The Stepford Wives
2005	Zathura				Robot	Voice role
	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith				Yoda
2007	Death at a Funeral
2011	Star Tours: The Adventures Continue				Yoda	Voice role Theme park attraction
	Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey				Himself	Documentary

Television

Year	Title	Director	Puppeteer	Actor	Role	Notes
1969"present	Sesame Street				Bert Grover Cookie Monster Lefty the Salesman Harvey Kneeslapper Additional voices	Voice Still performs the characters on occasion
1976-1981	The Muppet Show				Fozzie Bear Miss Piggy Sam the Eagle Animal Marvin Suggs Additional voices	Voice
1977	Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas				Alice Otter	TV movie
1990	The Muppets at Walt Disney World				Miss Piggy	Episode: "Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration"
1996-1998	Muppets Tonight				Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam the Eagle Animal Additional voices	Voice
1999	CinderElmo				Bert Grover Cookie Monster	Voice TV movie
2002	The Funkhousers					TV movie
2011	Leverage					Episode: The Carnival Job

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Muppet Treasure Island	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear	Voice role
	The Muppet CDROM: Muppets Inside	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Animal
2000	Muppet Monster Adventure	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear
	Muppet RaceMania	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam the Eagle Animal

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1974	News & Documentary Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming Shared with Fran Brill, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson & Caroll Spinney	Sesame Street
1976	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Children's Programming Shared with Gerri Brioso, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson & Caroll Spinney
1977	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series Shared with Jack Burns, Dave Goelz, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, David Lazer, John Lovelady, Jerry Nelson, Eren Ozker & Caroll Spinney	The Muppet Show
1978		Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series Shared with Jim Henson, David Lazer, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt & Dave Goelz
1979	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming Shared with Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson & Caroll Spinney
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series Shared with Jim Henson, David Lazer, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt & Dave Goelz