In fact, during the first few episodes of the show's first season, Frank Oz shared the role of Miss Piggy with Richard Hunt. Oz performed Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal, as well as secondary characters Sam the Eagle, George the Janitor and Marvin Suggs.įozzie Bear was originally intended to be his main character, and Miss Piggy was originally meant to be a supporting character. One of his most significant characters during this time was The Mighty Favog on Saturday Night Live.įrank Oz was one of the main performers on The Muppet Show, performing several of the show's stars. Middle Yearsīetween the beginning of Sesame Street and the start of The Muppet Show, Frank Oz performed in nearly every major Henson production, including The Great Santa Claus Switch, The Frog Prince, and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. As late as April 2012, during production of Season 43, Oz was still performing in new segments, taped on a limited schedule of one day a year. Despite this, to help keep Oz's characters visible, Eric Jacobson was cast as the principal performer of Bert and Grover, and David Rudman the principal performer of Cookie Monster. Īccording to the book Sesame Street Unpaved, during the show's early years Oz was in almost every sketch, but by 1998 he only appeared on the Sesame Street set four days a year, performing nearly fifteen sketches with his characters in those four days. Ĭommenting on his performing habits, Fran Brill noted that Oz would often put his hand on top of whoever was doing right hands so they couldn't gesture too much. He was also offered the role of Big Bird, but because of his experience as the La Choy Dragon, he turned down the role. During this time, he performed a great number of minor characters, including Lefty the Salesman. On Sesame Street, Frank Oz originated the characters of Bert, Grover, and Cookie Monster, and performed them exclusively for nearly 30 years. I always hated being inside characters, but I was the main performer and that was my job. This was Oz's first, and one of his very few, experiences as a full-bodied puppet performer, and one which he did not relish: His most notable commercial role was as Delbert the La Choy Dragon.
While Henson provided all of the voices, he and Oz would alternate when performing such buddy duos as Scoop and Skip, and the new puppeteer assisted on such characters as the Southern Colonel and Nutty Bird. He also worked on commercials, replacing Jane Henson as key assistant.
Thus, Oz began using the shortened form of his name that he's known by today. It was here that Jimmy Dean introduced him as "Frank Oz.," mumbling the last part of his name.
as a right hand for Rowlf the Dog in variety appearances and later on The Jimmy Dean Show.
His first impression of Henson was as "this very quiet, shy guy who did these absolutely ******* amazing puppets that were totally brand new and fresh, that had never been done before." At age 19, in 1963, he joined the burgeoning Muppets, Inc. It was also safe to hide behind puppets because at that point I was a little shy." He had no desire to go into puppeteering professionally: "I just did it as a hobby to get some money- I really wanted to be a journalist." Beginnings with HensonĪt the age of 17, Oz first met Jim Henson at the Puppeteers of America festival in California. I was able to express myself and please my parents. Despite this background, "I don't have a love of puppets," Oz explained in a 1987 interview "I did itĪs a means of expression. The son of puppeteers Isadore "Mike" Oznowicz and his wife Frances, with two other siblings, young Frank was performing as part of the Oznowicz Family Marionettes troupe by age 12. Frank Richard Oznowicz was born in England, spent parts of his childhood in Belgium, and moved to America when he was five.
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