Frank Oz

Frank Oz
Born	Frank Richard Oznowicz (1944-05-25) May 25, 1944 Hereford, Herefordshire, England
Occupation	Actor, director, puppeteer
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 a film director, actor, voice actor and puppeteer who is known for creating and performing the characters Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear 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 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 for a time with the Vagabond Puppets, a production of the Oakland Recreation Department, where Lettie Connell was his mentor.

Puppeteering career

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.^{[citation needed]}

Oz is also known as the performer of Jedi Master Yoda from George Lucas' Star Wars series. 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, and 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 (whose nature some professional syntacticians discuss in their spare time). 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. Oz reprised his vocal role as Yoda in Disney's Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. Frank Oz is more eager than ever to reprise the voice of Yoda in one of the forthcoming Star Wars stand alone movies.

Directing career

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 career

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. He will reprise his role in the upcoming prequel film Monsters University. 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	Role	Other notes
1979	The Muppet Movie	Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Sam the Eagle, Animal, various	Puppeteer/voice
1980	The Blues Brothers	Corrections officer
	Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back	Yoda	Puppeteer/voice
1981	The Great Muppet Caper	Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Sam the Eagle, Animal, various	Puppeteer/voice; also producer
	An American Werewolf in London	Mr. Collins
1982	The Dark Crystal	Aughra	Also co-director
1983	Superman III	Surgeon	Deleted scene
	Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi	Yoda
	Trading Places	Booking cop
1984	Muppets Take Manhattan	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Animal, Bert, Cookie Monster, Ocean Breeze Board member, various	Also director and screenwriter
1985	Spies Like Us	Test monitor
	Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird	Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster	Puppeteer/voice
1986	Little Shop Of Horrors		Director
	Labyrinth	The Wiseman	Puppeteer
1988	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels		Director
1991	Muppet*Vision 3D	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Animal, various	Puppeteer/voice; Theme park attraction
	What About Bob?		Director
1992	Housesitter		Director
	Innocent Blood	Pathologist
	The Muppet Christmas Carol	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Animal, various	Puppeteer/voice; also executive producer
1995	The Indian in the Cupboard		Director
1996	Muppet Treasure Island	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Animal, various	Puppeteer/voice; also executive producer
1997	In & Out		Director
1998	Blues Brothers 2000	Warden
1999	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	Yoda	Puppeteer/voice
	Muppets from Space	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Animal, various	Puppeteer/voice
	Bowfinger		Director
	The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland	Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster	Puppeteer/voice
2001	The Score		Director
	Monsters, Inc.	Jeff Fungus	Voice role
2002	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones	Yoda	Voice role
	The Funkhousers		Director; TV movie
2004	The Stepford Wives		Director
2005	Zathura	Robot	Voice role
	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	Yoda	Voice role
2007	Death at a Funeral		Director
2011	Star Tours: The Adventures Continue	Yoda	Voice role; Theme park attraction
	Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey	Himself	Documentary
2013	Monsters University	Jeff Fungus	Voice role; upcoming film
Television
Years	Title	Role	Other notes
1969–present	Sesame Street	Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster, Lefty the Salesman, various others	Puppeteer/voice; still performs the characters on occasion
1976-1981	The Muppet Show	Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Sam the Eagle, Animal, Marvin Suggs, various	Puppeteer/voice
1978	Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas	Alice Otter	Puppeteer; TV movie
1996-1998	Muppets Tonight	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Animal, various	Puppeteer/voice
1999	CinderElmo	Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster	Puppeteer/voice; TV movie
2011	Leverage		Director; Episode: The Carnival Job
Video Games
Years	Title	Role	Other notes
2000	Muppet Monster Adventure	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear	Voice role
2000	Muppet RaceMania	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Animal	Voice role

External links

• Muppet Wiki: Frank Oz
• Frank Oz at the Internet Movie Database