Frank Oz

Frank Oz
Oz at the 38th Annual Saturn Awards 2012
Born	Frank Richard Oznowicz (1944-05-25) May 25, 1944 Hereford, Herefordshire, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	English-American
Education	Oakland Technical High School
Alma mater	Oakland City College
Occupation(s)	Film director, puppeteer, actor
Years active	1963–present
Spouse(s)	Robin Garsen (m. 1979–2005; 4 children) Victoria Labalme (m. 2011–present)

Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; born May 25, 1944) is an English-born American film director, puppeteer, and actor who created and performed the Muppet 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, 1991's comedy "What About Bob?", and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He is also the puppeteer and voice of Yoda 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 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.

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 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 Muppet performer in over 75 productions 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 Muppet characters were taken primarily over by Eric Jacobson (with David Rudman as Cookie Monster) in 2002.

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 attraction at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios.

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 in 1984

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.

Even if he does not appear 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 for 'Mr. Frank Oznowicz'.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Director	Actor	Role	Notes
1979	The Muppet Movie	No	Yes	Fozzie Bear Miss Piggy Sam Eagle Animal Marvin Suggs	Puppeteer/Voice
1980	The Blues Brothers	No	Yes	Corrections officer
	The Empire Strikes Back	No	Yes	Yoda	Puppeteer/Voice
1981	The Great Muppet Caper	No	Yes	Fozzie Bear Miss Piggy Sam Eagle Animal Additional characters	Puppeteer/Voice Also producer
	An American Werewolf in London	No	Yes	Mr. Collins
1982	The Dark Crystal	Yes	Yes	Aughra	Co-directed with Jim Henson
1983	Superman III	No	Yes	Surgeon	Deleted scene
	Return of the Jedi	No	Yes	Yoda	Puppeteer/Voice
	Trading Places	No	Yes	Booking cop
1984	The Muppets Take Manhattan	Yes	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam Eagle Animal Bert Cookie Monster Ocean Breeze Board member Additional characters	Also screenwriter
1985	Spies Like Us	No	Yes	Test monitor
	Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird	No	Yes	Bert Grover Cookie Monster	Puppeteer/Voice
1986	Little Shop of Horrors	Yes	No
	Labyrinth	No	Yes	The Wiseman
1988	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels	Yes	No
1991	Muppet*Vision 3D	No	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam Eagle Additional characters	Puppeteer/Voice Theme park attraction
	What About Bob?	Yes	No
1992	Housesitter	Yes	No
	Innocent Blood	No	Yes	Pathologist
	The Muppet Christmas Carol	No	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam Eagle Animal Additional characters	Puppeteer/Voice Also executive producer
1995	The Indian in the Cupboard	Yes	No
1996	Muppet Treasure Island	No	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam Eagle Animal Additional characters	Puppeteer/Voice Also executive producer
1997	In & Out	Yes	No
1998	Blues Brothers 2000	No	Yes	Warden
1999	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	No	Yes	Yoda	Puppeteer/Voice
	Muppets from Space	No	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam Eagle Animal Additional characters	Voice
	Bowfinger	Yes	No
	The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland	No	Yes	Bert Grover Cookie Monster	Voice
2001	The Score	Yes	No
	Monsters, Inc.	No	Yes	Jeff Fungus	Voice
2002	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones	No	Yes	Yoda
2004	The Stepford Wives	Yes	No
2005	Zathura	No	Yes	Robot	Voice
	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	No	Yes	Yoda
2007	Death at a Funeral	Yes	No
2011	Star Tours—The Adventures Continue	No	Yes	Yoda	Voice Theme park attraction
	Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey	No	Yes	Himself	Documentary

Television

Year	Title	Director	Actor	Role	Notes
1969–present	Sesame Street	No	Yes	Bert Grover Cookie Monster Lefty the Salesman Harvey Kneeslapper Additional characters	Puppeteer/Voice
1976–1981	The Muppet Show	No	Yes	Fozzie Bear Miss Piggy Sam Eagle Animal Marvin Suggs Additional characters	Puppeteer/Voice
1977	Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas	No	No	Alice Otter	Puppeteer/Voice Television film
1989–1990	The Jim Henson Hour	No	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear	Puppeteer/Voice
1990	The Muppets at Walt Disney World	No	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Animal	Puppeteer/Voice
1994	Jim Henson's Animal Show	No	Yes	Sam Eagle	Puppeteer/Voice Episode: "Bald Eagle"
1996–1998	Muppets Tonight	No	Yes	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear Sam Eagle Animal Additional characters	Puppeteer/Voice
1999	CinderElmo	No	Yes	Bert Grover Cookie Monster	Voice Television film
2002	The Funkhousers	Yes	No		Television film
2011	Leverage	Yes	No		Episode: The Carnival Job

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Muppet Treasure Island	Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear	Voice
	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 Eagle Animal

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Program	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	Won
1976	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Children's Programming Shared with Gerri Brioso, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson & Caroll Spinney		Won
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	Nominated
1978		Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series Shared with Jim Henson, David Lazer, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt & Dave Goelz		Won
1979	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming Shared with Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson & Caroll Spinney		Won
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series Shared with Jim Henson, David Lazer, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt & Dave Goelz		Nominated

External links

• Muppet Wiki: Frank Oz
• Frank Oz at IMDb