Jim Henson Biography

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1936 - 1990

Jim Henson was born on September 24, 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi. Around 1946, Jim and his family left Mississippi and moved to a small suburb of Washington DC. During high school, Jim started performing with puppets for a television station. He then attended college with one of his classmates, Jane Nebel and started working for an NBC subsidiary television company performing his own puppets on a magazine show. These puppets, which Jim called 'Muppets,' became very popular and soon received their own air time with the show of his own creation, "Sam and Friends" in 1955-1961. In 1959, Jim married Jane Nebel.

After "Sam and Friends" Jim began to pursue his past interests, particularly film. In 1964, he created the Academy-nominated Timepiece. He also made The Cube and Youth '68 which were aired in segments on NBC's "Experiments in Television." Jim did not forget his ever-popular Muppets, whom by this time have a large following. Jim produced three more made-for-TV movies starring the Muppets. "Hey Cinderella!" in 1968, "Tales from Muppetland- The Frog

Prince" in 1971, and "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen" in 1972. Jim continued to create some very attention-grabbing worlds and in the process create new ways/techniques to use puppetry. Jim gained additional support when he found Jerry Juhl, Don Sahlin, and Frank Oz during the 1960's.

Jim was soon asked to help build a new television program directed at pre-shcool children. In 1970, "Sesame Street" aired for the first time and was a great success. It soon became "the most important children's program in the history of television." Jim then made more Muppet television specials, "Muppet Valentine Special" and "The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence" in 1974. In 1975, Jim was asked to join a new comedy show called "Saturday Night Live." Jim created all new adult puppets called Gorchs. Unfortunately, the writers of SNL did not incorporate the Gorchs very well so they were taken out. However, this was good news because during the same time Jim was given the chance to create an entire show just for the Muppets. Aired in 1976, "The Muppet Show" gained new ground. It became the most widely watched sitcom throughout the world during the seventies.

During the five years "The Muppet Show" was aired, Jim was constantly coming up with new ideas. He began working with an English illustrator, Brian Froud, collaborating on ideas for a new film known today as The Dark Crystal. He made two movies using the same characters from "The Muppet Show", The Muppet Movie in 1979 and The Great Muppet Caper in 1981.

By 1981, Henson decided to concentrate more on his other ideas/interests and stopped taping new episodes for "The Muppet Show." He began filming The Dark Crystal, which encompassed all of Jim’s techniques, plus new mechanics he was starting to become involved with. Jim Henson's Creature Shop was soon developed for such projects. Released in 1982, The Dark Crystal did not do as well as hoped for in the theaters. The good side to this was Jim was recognized for his special effects. This led he and the Creature Shop to take on special projects, such as the characters used in the film Dreamchild. Jim continued to produce Muppet television show/specials such as "The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show" in 1982 and "Fraggle Rock" in 1983. In 1984, Jim released another Muppet film, Muppets Take Manhattan as well as the new cartoon "Muppet Babies."

In 1986 Henson released another fantasy film: Labyrinth. Starring David Bowie, this film also had the same outcome as The Dark Crystal. Critics claimed the reason it did poorly in theaters was due to the seriousness/darkness of both films. Although, today both The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth are cult-classics. In 1987 Jim was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. He continued to create new and exciting worlds for the rest of the eighties. Shows such as "The Ghost of Faffner Hall," the animated version of "Fraggle Rock," as well as Muppet guest appearances and specials. Jim also conducted a much more dramatic use of puppetry and special effects shown in the television episodes of "The Storyteller" which ran from 1987 to 1989.

From 1989 to 1990 Jim started to make another film under the direction of Nicholas Roeg. The Witches, starring Angelica Houston, dealt with animatronics as well as puppetry. Tragically, Henson did not live to see the final production. On May 16,1990 Henson died of a rare bacterial infection. This news devastated the Henson family, Jane and their five children Brian, Paul, Cheryl, Lisa and Heather. Many friends as well as the millions of fans around the world.

Today, through his family, the artwork started by Jim is now carried out through Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Jim Henson Productions and Jim Henson Pictures. Shows such as "Muppet's Tonight", "The Wubbulous World of Dr. Suess", and the "Bear in the Blue House" and films such as The Adventures of Pinocchio and Buddy were created by these companies.

Jim Henson brought such magic to television, movies and music. It is so sad to think he is no longer with us, but then maybe he is not really gone, but within us all. We all now all the wonderful things Jim has done in his life. He devoted his life to "Muppets". As long as film and TV shows are created under "Jim Henson’s" name, I don’t think we’ll ever forget him. He’s too precious to forget.