Lew Grade, Baron Grade (25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998), born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.

Originally a dancer, later a booking agent, his television interests began in 1954 when (in partnership) he successfully bid for franchises in the new ITV network, which led to the creation of Associated TeleVision, also known as ATV. Having worked for a time in the United States, Grade was aware of the potential for the sale of television programmes to the American networks, and a subsidiary company ITC was formed with this specific objective in mind. Grade had some success in this field, and these filmed series, in particular The Prisoner (1967-68), still retain a following internationally. Later, Grade invested in film productions, both popular and prestigious projects, but several expensive flops led him to lose control of the company, and ultimately ATV to be wound up after losing its ITV franchise.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

He was born in Tokmak, Ukraine, Russian Empire to Olga and Isaac Winogradsky. In 1912 the Jewish family fled to a new life in the East End of London. Isaac managed a cinema, while his three sons (the others were Bernard Delfont and Leslie Grade) attended the Rochelle Street School in Bethnal Green, near Shoreditch, where Yiddish was spoken by 90% of the pupils. For two years they lived in rented rooms at the north end of Brick Lane, then moved to the nearby Boundary Estate.^[1] At 15 Louis became an agent for a clothing firm, and shortly afterwards started his own business. But after he won a Charleston competition at the Royal Albert Hall in 1926, he became a professional dancer under the name Louis Grad; his name's final form came from a Paris reporter's error which Grade liked and kept.^[2] Around 1934 he became a booking agent and soon went into partnership with the established agent Joe Collins (father of Jackie and Joan Collins). Among Grade's clients were harmonica player Larry Adler and the jazz group The Quintet of the Hot Club of France.^[3]

After the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939, Grade became involved in arranging troops entertainment in Harrogate,^[2] which were popular, and subsequently after he joined the Army. He was invalided out of the forces after two years when an old problem with water on the knees, which had earlier ended his dancing career, reoccurred.^[3]

In 1945, Grade went into partnership with his brother Leslie (the arrangement with Joe Collins had by now been terminated) and spent some of his time in the United States where the brothers developed their interests. His connections led to Bob Hope and Judy Garland, among others, appearing in Britain for the first time.^[3]

Television interests[link]

In August 1954 Grade was contacted by Mike Nidorf,^[4] the manager of singer Jo Stafford, who notified him of an advertisement in The Times inviting franchise bids for the new ITV network. Assembling a consortium, including impresarios Val Parnell and Prince Littler, the Incorporated Television Programme Company (ITP), soon changing its name to Independent Television Company was formed. Their bid to the Independent Television Authority (ITA) was rejected owing to the conflict of interest from their involvement in artist management and prominent status. The Associated Broadcasting Development Company gained ITA approval for both the London (weekend) and Midlands (weekday) contracts, but was undercapitalised, and Grade's consortium joined with them to form what became Associated TeleVision.

Grade was deputy managing director of ATV under Val Parnell until 1962,^[5] but it was Grade who was responsible for committing the finance for what would become the company's first success with an international audience: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-1960), commissioned by an American producer, Hannah Weinstein, who was based in Britain.

The ITC production company, a wholly owned ATV subsidiary from 1957,^[6] became known for many internationally successful TV series. Howard Thomas, managing director of ABC, another ITV contractor, was soon complaining that Grade made television programmes for Birmingham, Alabama, rather than Birmingham, England.^[7] These programmes included The Saint (19620-69), with Roger Moore, later James Bond), and two series which involved Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man (1960-68, also known as Secret Agent in the US) and The Prisoner (1967-68).

In 1962 AP Films became an ITC subsidiary. AP Films, co-founded by Gerry Anderson, produced several popular children's marionette adventure series including Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and later several live action series such as UFO and Space: 1999. Although supportive of the produced shows, especially concerning Thunderbirds which he insisted on having the episodes be produced as an hour-long one on account of being so pleased by the premiere "Trapped in the Sky", the consistent drive for success at home and abroad led to various artistic differences for Grade with McGoohan and Anderson, leading to a split with both.

The companies were reorganised again in 1966, under the Associated Communications Corporation umbrella. ATV lost its London franchise to what became London Weekend Television in 1967,^[8] but at the same time the Midlands franchise was extended to the whole week. The new arrangement came into force from July 1968. Foreign sales remained buoyant, they were worth $30 million in 1970^[9] and Grade's company received the Queen's Awards for Export in 1967 and 1969. In the early 1970s though, a number of ITC series were flops including UFO (1970–71); The Persuaders! (1971–72),^[6] (its second series to star Roger Moore); and Grade's ultimate coup, The Julie Andrews Hour (1972–1973), which lasted only one season on the American ABC network, and yet received excellent reviews and was awarded seven Emmy Awards including Best Variety Series.

Northern Songs purchase[link]

Grade's path crossed with the Beatles in 1969. Grade and ATV Music Publishing bought a majority share in Northern Songs, the company established by Brian Epstein which owned nearly all of the Beatles' catalogue. After a fierce battle, Grade and ATV won control of the company while controlling any other songs written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon between 1964 and 1971. (George Harrison and Ringo Starr broke from Northern Songs prior to Grade's acquisition.) ATV would retain control of Northern Songs until 1985, when the company sold the songs to Michael Jackson.

The Muppets[link]

In the mid-1970s, Grade approached American puppeteer Jim Henson, who was in need of assistance for a new television programme. Henson wanted to create a new TV variety show starring his Muppet characters in the United States, but had been dismissed by the American networks for merely being part of children's shows like Sesame Street. CBS almost agreed to holding the show, but only if it aired during a syndicated block of its programming and if it were produced by someone else. After watching one of Henson's pilots and recalling a special made in one of his studios, Grade decided to let Henson create his show in England and distribute it through ATV (in the United Kingdom to the ITV network) and ITC (for the United States and worldwide distribution). Grade's action was instrumental in bringing The Muppet Show to the screen in 1976 and led to its wide success on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world.

Henson chose to immortalize the impresario through the character Lew Lord (played by Orson Welles) in The Muppet Movie. There was also speculation for a time that Muppet Dr. Bunsen Honeydew was also a caricature of Grade, though this was denied (with a hint of regret) by Henson in a 1982 interview.^[10]

[edit] Jesus of Nazareth

His other successes as a producer included the award-winning Jesus of Nazareth (1977), starring Robert Powell. Grade had unique success in selling to the American market. The mini-series secured a record breaking $12m. He also promoted extravagant 'quality' productions on ATV to prove its equal to BBC TV, for instance giving over a whole evening schedule to a live broadcast of Tosca from La Scala starring Maria Callas.

Major films[link]

In 1975, Grade and ITC released the film The Return of the Pink Panther into theaters with assistance of United Artists and with director Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers in his role of Inspector Clouseau. Originally conceived as a TV series, Grade saw the potential of reviving the Pink Panther film franchise by turning it into a motion picture. Although there was tremendous controversy with Grade turning the project into a movie, a compromise was eventually made where United Artists would distribute the film in the United States while ITC would distribute for the rest of the world. When the Pink Panther film was a huge hit, it not only revived the franchise (which UA would resume on its own), but also made Grade move into films, hoping to have the same success as he had in television. While having notable films and modest successes in this period, the biggest success would come through 1979's The Muppet Movie, partially tied to his successful deal with Jim Henson and the popularity of The Muppet Show. Keeping his ideas about class alongside showmanship, Grade would also become the producer of Ingmar Bergman films Autumn Sonata and From the Life of the Marionettes. Other notable films of the period include other co-releases such as The Boys From Brazil with 20th Century Fox starring Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck and Stanley Donen's Movie Movie with Warner Brothers.

In 1980, Grade backed an expensive 'all-star' film version of Clive Cussler's best-seller Raise the Titanic; Grade himself remarked that "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic".^[6] Released the same year as The Empire Strikes Back, the middle of the original Star Wars trilogy, RTT flopped as audience tastes had changed. This and other expensive duds—including Saturn 3 (also 1980) and The Legend of the Lone Ranger (released the following year)--marked the end of Grade's involvement with major motion picture production. Amazingly, several of the most critically acclaimed films produced by Grade would come out after the disaster of Raise the Titanic: the Academy Award-winning films On Golden Pond and Sophie's Choice, as well as cult classic The Dark Crystal, which was the final project Jim Henson created in association with Grade and ITC.

After ITC and beyond[link]

In 1980, three events would end up diminishing Grade's star in the production and entertainment world: Jim Henson's decision to end The Muppet Show after a successful five year run, the bombing of Raise the Titanic, and a decision during the ITV determination for the Midlands region effective 1 January 1982 that ATV could keep their licence under the condition that they remove their connection with Grade and ITC Entertainment (eventually leading to their rebrand as Central Television). He eventually stepped down from the company that he had led since the 1950s as it was put through a series of partnerships and mergers. Grade eventually was brought in by Norman Lear to head the film unit of Embassy Pictures but was never as influential or successful as he was during his long history in British television and film (even though he sat through the distribution of important and influential films such as Blade Runner and This Is Spinal Tap). He was also a producer of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Starlight Express.

By the mid-1990s, Grade once again returned to ITC, to head the company that he had created for one last time until his death.

Honours[link]

He was made a life peer as Baron Grade, of Elstree in the County of Hertfordshire in 1976, having been knighted in 1969. He chose Elstree as his territorial designation not after the famous Elstree Studios, known at one time as "Britain's Hollywood", but because ATV's studios were also located there.

Death[link]

Grade died of heart failure, 12 days short of his 92nd birthday, on 13 December 1998.

Centenary[link]

Lew Grade would have been 100 years old on Christmas Day 2006. To celebrate his life, BBC Radio 2 produced two one-hour shows which were transmitted at 10pm on 24 and 25 December. The shows were hosted by Sir Roger Moore and featured interviews with Lady Grade, Lew's niece Anita Land and nephew Michael Grade CBE (now Lord Grade of Yarmouth) (both the children of Leslie Grade), and nephew Ian Freeman, the son of his sister, Rita, plus a host of stars.

References[link]

[edit] Quotes

• Commenting on his expensive flop, Raise the Titanic: "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic."

• "Marriage was the best business deal I ever made. After that, Jesus of Nazareth and The Muppets."

• From Sir Roger Moore - "Anyone who is 88 and can still jump up on the table and do The Charleston...that speaks volumes!"

• "All my shows are great. Some of them are bad, but they are all great."

• "Only twelve disciples? Didn't I tell you I want this thing to be big, big, big!" (To Franco Zefirelli, on the set of 'Jesus of Nazareth')

• "I have a very good sense of what audiences want and expect from movies and television. That's because I'm one of them."

• At age 11, when asked the answer to 'What is two plus two': "Are you buying or selling ?"

[edit] External links

• Lew Grade at the Internet Movie Database
• An article on how Raise the Titanic! ruined Lew Grade's film ambitions^{dead link}

Patrick Joseph McGoohan (March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an American-born actor, brought up in Ireland and England, where he established an extensive stage and film career, with his most notable roles in the 1960s television series Danger Man (renamed Secret Agent when exported to the US),^[1] and The Prisoner, which he co-created.^[1] McGoohan wrote and directed several episodes of The Prisoner himself, occasionally using the pseudonyms Joseph Serf and Paddy Fitz.^[2] Later in his career he moved to America and subsequently appeared as the killer in four Columbo episodes, twice winning an Emmy. He was featured in David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981), and played King Edward I aka Longshanks in Mel Gibson's Braveheart (1995).

Early life[link]

McGoohan was born in Astoria, Queens, New York City, to Thomas McGoohan and Rose Fitzpatrick, who were living in the United States after emigrating from Ireland to look for work. He was brought up Roman Catholic.^[3] Shortly after he was born, McGoohan's parents moved back to Mullaghmore, County Leitrim, Ireland,^[4] and, seven years later, they moved to Sheffield, England. McGoohan attended St Vincent's school in Sheffield,^[5] but following the outbreak of World War II he was evacuated to Loughborough, Leicestershire. There he attended Ratcliffe College, where he excelled in mathematics and boxing.

McGoohan left school at the age of sixteen and returned to Sheffield where he worked as a chicken farmer, a bank clerk and a lorry driver before getting a job as a stage manager at Sheffield Repertory Theatre. When one of the actors became ill McGoohan filled in, launching his acting career.

Early career[link]

In 1955, McGoohan starred in a West End production of a play called Serious Charge in the role of a priest accused of being gay. Orson Welles was so impressed by McGoohan's stage presence ("intimidated," Welles said later) that he cast him as Starbuck in his York theatre production of Moby Dick—Rehearsed. (Welles said in 1969 that he believed McGoohan "would now be, I think, one of the big actors of our generation if TV hadn't grabbed him. He can still make it. He was tremendous as Starbuck.")^[6]

While working as a stand-in during screen tests, McGoohan was signed to a contract with the Rank Organisation. The producers may have been more interested in capitalizing on his boxing skill and appearance than his acting ability, casting him as the conniving bad boy in such films as the gritty Hell Drivers and the steamy potboiler The Gypsy and the Gentleman, and after a few films and some clashes with the management, the contract was dissolved.

Free of the contract, he did some TV work, winning a BAFTA in 1959, for a role the previous year in an episode of Armchair Theatre.^[7] His favourite part for the stage was the lead in Ibsen's Brand, for which he received an award, and appeared in a (still extant) BBC television production in August 1959.

[edit] 1960s: Danger Man

Soon, production executive Lew Grade approached McGoohan about a TV series in which he would play a spy named John Drake. Having learned from his experience at the Rank Organisation, he insisted on several conditions in the contract before agreeing to appear in the programme: all the fistfights should be different, the character would always use his brain before using a gun, and, much to the horror of the executives, no kissing. The series debuted in 1960 as Danger Man, a half-hour programme geared toward an American audience. It did fairly well, but not as well as hoped.^[8] Production lasted only one year and 39 episodes.

McGoohan was one of several actors considered for the role of James Bond in Dr. No (along with future Bond actor Roger Moore). While McGoohan, a Catholic, turned down the role on moral grounds, the success of the Bond films is generally cited as the reason for Danger Man being revived. McGoohan, introduced himself as “Drake. John Drake” in the style of James Bond for the series, but while the Bond character was—and remains—quite the womanizer, McGoohan said his faith made him resist having his Drake character fall into the same lifestyle as Bond.^[9]

Before Danger Man was revived, McGoohan spent some time working for Disney on The Three Lives of Thomasina and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.^[10] After he had also turned down the role of Simon Templar in The Saint, Lew Grade asked him if he would like to give John Drake another try. This time, McGoohan had even more say about the series. Danger Man (US: Secret Agent) was resurrected in 1964 as a one-hour programme. The scripts now allowed McGoohan more range in his acting. The popularity of the series led to McGoohan becoming the highest paid actor in the UK^[11] and the show lasted almost three more years.

After shooting the two episodes of Danger Man in colour, McGoohan told Lew Grade he was going to quit for another show.^[12] After the series was over, one interviewer asked McGoohan if he would have liked the series to continue, to which he replied, "I would rather do twenty TV series than go through what I went through under that Rank contract I signed a few years ago for which I blame no one but myself."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The Prisoner

In the face of McGoohan's intention to quit Danger Man Grade asked if he would at least work on "something" for him. McGoohan gave him a run-down of what would later be called a miniseries about a secret agent who resigns suddenly and wakes up to find himself in a prison disguised as a holiday resort. Grade asked for a budget, McGoohan had one ready, and they made a deal over a handshake early on a Saturday morning to produce The Prisoner. Apart from being the star, McGoohan was the executive producer, forming Everyman Films with series producer David Tomblin, and also wrote and directed episodes, in some cases using pseudonyms.^[13] The originally commissioned seven episodes were increased to seventeen.

The Prisoner spends the entire series trying to escape from The Village and to learn the identity of his nemesis, Number One. The Prisoner was a completely new, cerebral kind of series, stretching the limits of the established television formulae. Its influence has been echoed in Lost, Babylon 5, Nowhere Man, I-man, Tower Prep, The Truman Show, The Simpsons and ReBoot.^{[citation needed]}

The main character, the unnamed Number Six, became McGoohan's most recognisable character. Unfortunately, it also became his prison. Number Six was so obsessively pro-individual that whenever McGoohan later played someone who had something to say about individuality or freedom, the character was often compared to his previous incarnation. For example, his portrayal of the warden in Escape from Alcatraz. "Mel Gibson will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a Number", he was once quoted as saying.

The cult of The Prisoner spawned many books, college courses, a quarterly magazine, and documentaries. There were several fan clubs—most notably "Six of One", which still honours the show annually with a convention in Portmeirion, North Wales, where the show's exteriors were shot. McGoohan was the honorary president. In the May 30, 2004 edition of TV Guide, The Prisoner was ranked seventh in a list of the "25 Top Rated Cult Shows Ever!" McGoohan's show outranked the likes of The Twilight Zone (#8) and Doctor Who (#18). TV Guide wrote, "Fans still puzzle over this weird, enigmatic drama, a Kafkaesque allegory about the individual's struggle in the modern age."

[edit] Late 1960s to 1980s: Films and Columbo

McGoohan appeared in many films, including Howard Hughes's favourite, the 1968 film Ice Station Zebra, for which he was critically acclaimed, and Silver Streak (1976), with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. In 1977, he starred in the TV series Rafferty playing a former army doctor who has retired and moved into private practice (one reviewer considers this series a forerunner to House, M.D.^[14]). He also appeared in the 1981 film Scanners, a science fiction/horror film by Canadian director David Cronenberg that has since attained cult film status. In 1985, he appeared on Broadway for his only production there; he starred opposite Rosemary Harris in Hugh Whitemore's Pack of Lies, in which he played a British intelligence agent. He was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Best Actor for his performance.

McGoohan received two Emmy Awards for his work on Columbo with his long-time friend Peter Falk. McGoohan had said that his first appearance on Columbo was probably his favourite American role. He directed five Columbo episodes (including three of the four in which he played the murderer), and wrote and produced two (including one of these). McGoohan was involved with the Columbo series in some capacity from 1974 to 2000.^[15]

1990s[link]

In 1991, he starred in The Best of Friends for the British Channel 4 network, which told the story of the unlikely friendship between a museum curator, a nun and a playwright. McGoohan played George Bernard Shaw alongside Sir John Gielgud as Sydney Cockerell and Dame Wendy Hiller as Sister Laurentia McLachlan. In the United States, the drama was shown as part of Masterpiece Theatre by PBS.

He was most recognised by a later generation of fans as the Machiavellian King Edward I "Longshanks" from the Oscar-winning Braveheart (1995), and as Judge Omar Noose in A Time to Kill (1996). He directed Richie Havens in a rock-opera version of Othello called Catch My Soul.

In 1996, he appeared in Paramount's big budget cinema adaptation of The Phantom comic strip, playing the original, murdered Phantom, and father of the current incarnation of the title character (played by Billy Zane) who carried on his father's "undying" persona.

2000s[link]

In 2000, he reprised his role as Number Six in an episode of The Simpsons, "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes". In it, Homer Simpson concocts a news story to make his website more popular, and he wakes up in a prison disguised as a holiday resort. Dubbed Number Five, he befriends Number Six and escapes with his boat.

McGoohan's last film was a voice role in the animated film Treasure Planet, released in 2002. That same year, he received the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for The Prisoner.

McGoohan's name was linked to several aborted attempts at producing a new film version of The Prisoner. In 2002, director Simon West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) was signed to helm a version of the story. McGoohan was listed as executive producer for the film, which never came to fruition. More recently, director Christopher Nolan attached to a proposed film version. However, the source material remained difficult and elusive to adapt into a feature film. Ultimately, a reimagining of the series was filmed for the AMC network in late 2008, with broadcast taking place in November 2009; McGoohan was not involved in the project.

Personal life[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

McGoohan fell in love with an actress named Joan Drummond, to whom he reportedly wrote love notes every day. They were married on May 19, 1951. They had three daughters, Catherine (born 1952), Anne (born 1959) and Frances (born 1960). The McGoohans settled in the Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles in the mid-1970s.

Death and legacy[link]

Wikinews has related news: US actor Patrick McGoohan dead at age 80

McGoohan died on January 13, 2009 at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, following a brief illness.^[16] His remains were cremated.^[17]

A biography of the actor was published in 2007 by Tomahawk Press.^[18]

Selected filmography[link]

• Hell Drivers (1957)
• The Quare Fellow (1962)
• The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)
• Ice Station Zebra (1968)
• The Moonshine War (1970)
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
• Silver Streak (1976)
• Man in the Iron Mask (1977)
• Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
• Scanners (1981)
• Kings and Desperate Men (1981)
• Braveheart (1995)
• The Phantom (1996)
• A Time to Kill (1996)
• Treasure Planet (2002)

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Patrick McGoohan at the Internet Movie Database
• Patrick McGoohan at the Internet Broadway Database
• Patrick McGoohan at the British Film Institute's Screenonline

Dougie Squires (b. Douglas Squires, Nottingham, England, in 1932) is an English choreographer known best for his work in television that dates from the mid-1950s.

The groups he has choreographed for television include:

• The Dougie Squires Dancers
• Dougie Squires' Second Generation
• The Dougie Squires Dozen

As well as TV work he has been involved with theatrical productions and fund-raising events. In 2009 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to the Performing Arts.

External links[link]

• As Douglas Squires at the Internet Movie Database
• Personal website
• A Tribute to Lena Zavaroni

This English biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jim Henson
Henson at the 1989 Emmy Awards
Born	James Maury Henson (1936-09-24)September 24, 1936 Greenville, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	May 16, 1990(1990-05-16) (aged 53) New York City, New York, U.S.
Cause of death	Organ failure
Nationality	American
Education	Northwestern High School
Alma mater	University of Maryland, College Park
Occupation	Puppeteer Film director Television producer
Years active	1954–90
Known for	Creator of The Muppets
Home town	Leland, Mississippi
Board member of	Jim Henson Foundation The Jim Henson Company Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Spouse	Jane Nebel (1959–86; separated)
Children	Lisa Henson Cheryl Henson Brian Henson John Henson Heather Henson
Parents	Paul Ransom Henson Betty Marcella (née Brown)
Awards	Courage Conscience Award Disney Legend Award Emmy Award

James Maury "Jim" Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He died on May 16, 1990 of organ failure resulting from a Group A streptococcal infection caused by Streptococcus pyogenes.

Henson, who was born in Greenville, Mississippi and educated at University of Maryland, College Park, is one of the most widely known puppeteers ever.^[1] He created Sam and Friends as a freshman in College Park. After suffering struggles with programs that he created, he eventually was selected to participate in Sesame Street. During this time, he also contributed to Saturday Night Live. The success of Sesame Street spawned The Muppet Show, which featured Muppets created by Henson. He also co-created with Michael Jacobs the television show Dinosaurs during his final years. On June 16, 2011, he posthumously received the Disney Legends Award.

Early life[link]

Jim Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, the younger of two boys. His parents were Betty Marcella (née Brown) and Paul Ransom Henson, an agronomist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.^[2] He was raised as a Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi, moving with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, DC, in the late 1940s.^[3] He later remembered the arrival of the family's first television as "the biggest event of his adolescence,"^[4] having been heavily influenced by radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the early television puppets of Burr Tillstrom (on Kukla, Fran, and Ollie) and Bil and Cora Baird.^[4]

In 1954 while attending Northwestern High School, he began working for WTOP-TV, creating puppets for a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show. After graduating from high school, Henson enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, as a studio arts major, thinking he might become a commercial artist.^[5] A puppetry class offered in the applied arts department introduced him to the craft and textiles courses in the College of Home Economics, and he graduated in 1960 with a B.S. in home economics. As a freshman, he had been asked to create Sam and Friends, a five-minute puppet show for WRC-TV. The characters on Sam and Friends were forerunners of Muppets, and the show included a prototype of Henson's most famous character: Kermit the Frog.^[6]Henson would remain at WRC for seven years from 1954 to 1961. "Among the first of his assignments at WRC was Afternoon, a magazine show aimed at housewives. This marked his first collaboration with Jane Nebel—the woman who later became his wife"^[7]

In the show he began experimenting with techniques that would change the way puppetry had been used on television, including using the frame defined by the camera shot to allow the puppeteer to work from off-camera. Believing that television puppets needed to have "life and sensitivity,"^[8] Henson began making characters from flexible, fabric-covered foam rubber, allowing them to express a wider array of emotions at a time when many puppets were made of carved wood.^[2] A marionette's arms are manipulated by strings, but Henson used rods to move his Muppets' arms, allowing greater control of expression. Additionally, Henson wanted the Muppet characters to "speak" more creatively than was possible for previous puppets—which had seemed to have random mouth movements—so he used precise mouth movements to match the dialogue.

When Henson began work on Sam and Friends, he asked fellow University of Maryland freshman Jane Nebel to assist him. The show was a financial success, but after graduating from college, Jim began to have doubts about going into a career as a puppeteer. He wandered off to Europe for several months, where he was inspired by European puppeteers who look on their work as an art form.^[9] Upon Henson's return to the United States, he and Jane began dating. They were married in 1959 and had five children, Lisa (b. 1960), Cheryl (b. 1961), Brian (b. 1962), John (b. 1965), and Heather (b. 1970).

Projects in the 1960s[link]

Despite the success of Sam and Friends, which ran for six years, Henson spent much of the next two decades working in commercials, talk shows, and children's projects before being able to realize his dream of the Muppets as "entertainment for everybody".^[4] The popularity of his work on Sam and Friends in the late fifties led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. Henson himself appeared as a guest on many shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show (although on his appearance on the Sept. 11, 1966 episode of the show—released to DVD on 2011 as part of a collection of episodes featuring the Rolling Stones—Sullivan mis-introduces Henson as "Jim Newsom and his Puppets"). This greatly increased exposure led to hundreds of commercial appearances by Henson characters throughout the sixties.

Among the most popular of Henson's commercials was a series for the local Wilkins Coffee company in Washington, D.C.,^[10] in which his Muppets were able to get away with a greater level of slapstick violence than might have been acceptable with human actors and would later find its way into many acts on The Muppet Show. In the first Wilkins ad, a Muppet named Wilkins is poised behind a cannon seen in profile. Another Muppet named Wontkins (with Rowlf's voice) is in front of its barrel. Wilkins asks, "What do you think of Wilkins Coffee?" and Wontkins responds gruffly, "Never tasted it!" Wilkins fires the cannon and blows Wontkins away, then turns the cannon directly toward the viewer and ends the ad with, "Now, what do you think of Wilkins?" Henson later explained, "Till then, [advertising] agencies believed that the hard sell was the only way to get their message over on television. We took a very different approach. We tried to sell things by making people laugh."^[11] The first seven-second commercial for Wilkins was an immediate hit and was syndicated and re-shot by Henson for local coffee companies across the United States;^[10] he ultimately produced more than 300 coffee ads.^[11] The same setup was used to pitch Kraml Milk in the Chicago, Il., area and Red Diamond coffee.

In 1963 Henson and his wife moved to New York City, where the newly formed Muppets, Inc., would reside for some time. Jane quit muppeteering to raise their children. Henson hired writer Jerry Juhl in 1961 and puppeteer Frank Oz in 1963 to replace her.^[12] Henson later credited both writers with developing much of the humor and character of his Muppets.^[13] Henson and Oz developed a close friendship and a performing partnership that lasted 27 years; their teamwork is particularly evident in their portrayals of the characters of Bert and Ernie and Kermit and Fozzie Bear.^[14]

Henson's sixties' talk show appearances culminated when he devised Rowlf, a piano-playing anthropomorphic dog. Rowlf became the first Muppet to make regular appearances on a network show, The Jimmy Dean Show. Henson was so grateful for this break that he offered Jimmy Dean a 40% interest in his production company, but Dean declined stating that Henson deserved all the rewards for his own work, a decision of conscience Dean never regretted.^[15] From 1963 to 1966, Henson began exploring film-making and produced a series of experimental films.^[16] His nine-minute Time Piece was nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an Oscar for Short Film in 1966. The year 1969 saw the production of the NBC-TV movie The Cube—another Henson-produced experimental film.

Also around this time, the first drafts of a live-action experimental film script were written with Jerry Juhl, which would eventually become Henson's last unproduced full-length screenplay, Tale of Sand. The script remained in the Henson Company archives until the screenplay was adapted in the 2012 graphic novel, Jim Henson's Tale of Sand.

[edit] Sesame Street

In 1969, Joan Ganz Cooney and the team at the Children's Television Workshop asked Henson to work on Sesame Street, a visionary children's program for public television. Part of the show was set aside for a series of funny, colorful puppet characters living on the titular street. These included Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. Henson performed the characters of Ernie, game-show host Guy Smiley, and Kermit, who appeared as a roving television news reporter. It was around this time that a frill was added around Kermit's neck to make him more frog-like. The collar was functional as well: it covered the joint where the Muppet's neck and body met.

At first Henson's Muppets appeared separately from the realistic segments on the Street, but after a poor test-screening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the show was revamped to integrate the two, placing much greater emphasis on Henson's work. Though Henson would often downplay his role in Sesame Street's success, Cooney frequently praised Jim's work and, in 1990, the Public Broadcasting Service called him "the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service."^[4] The success of Sesame Street also allowed Henson to stop producing commercials. He later remembered that "it was a pleasure to get out of that world".^[10]

In addition to creating and performing Muppet characters, Henson was involved in producing various film and animation insets during the first two seasons. During the first, Henson produced a series of counting films for the numbers 1 through 10, which always ended with a baker (voiced by Henson) falling down the stairs while carrying the featured number of desserts. For seasons two to seven, Henson worked on a variety of inserts for the numbers 2 through 12, in a number of different styles—including film ("Dollhouse", "Number Three Ball Film"), stop-motion ("King of Eight", "Queen of Six"), cut-out animation ("Eleven Cheer"), and computer animation ("Nobody Counts To 10").

Concurrently with the first years of Sesame Street, Henson directed Tales from Muppetland, a short series of TV movie specials—in the form of comedic tellings of classic fairy tales—aimed at a young audience and hosted by Kermit the Frog. The series included Hey, Cinderella!, The Frog Prince, and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen.

Expansion of audience[link]

Concerned that the company was becoming typecast as a purveyor of solely children's entertainment, Henson, Frank Oz, and his team targeted an adult audience with a series of sketches on the first season of the groundbreaking comedy series Saturday Night Live (SNL). Eleven "Dregs and Vestiges" sketches, set mostly in the Land of Gorch, aired between October 1975 and January 1976, with four additional appearances in March, April, May, and September. Henson recalled that "I saw what [creator Lorne Michaels] was going for and I really liked it and wanted to be a part of it, but somehow what we were trying to do and what his writers could write for it never gelled."^[10] The SNL writers never got comfortable writing for the characters, and frequently disparaged Henson's creations; one, Michael O'Donoghue, memorably quipped, "I won't write for felt."^[17]

Around the time of Henson's characters' final appearances on SNL, he began developing two projects featuring the Muppets: a Broadway show and a weekly television series.^[10] In 1976 the series was initially rejected by the American networks who believed that Muppets would appeal to only a child audience. Henson was finally able to convince British impresario Lew Grade to finance the show, which would be shot in the United Kingdom and syndicated worldwide.^[9] That same year, he abandoned work on his Broadway show and moved his creative team to England, where The Muppet Show began filming. The Muppet Show featured Kermit as host, and a variety of other memorable characters, notably Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, and Fozzie Bear. Kermit's role on The Muppet Show was often compared by his co-workers to Henson's role in Muppet Productions: a shy, gentle boss with "a whim of steel"^[14] who "[ran] things as firmly as it is possible to run an explosion in a mattress factory."^[18] Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, remembered that Henson "would never say he didn't like something. He would just go 'Hmm.' That was famous. And if he liked it, he would say, 'Lovely!' "^[3]Henson himself recognized Kermit as an alter-ego, though he thought that Kermit was bolder than his creator; he once said of Kermit, "He can say things I hold back."^[19]

Jim Henson was the performer for several well known characters, including Kermit the Frog, Rowlf the Dog, Dr. Teeth, the Swedish Chef, Waldorf, Link Hogthrob, and the Muppet Newsman.

Transition to the big screen[link]

Three years after the start of The Muppet Show, the Muppets appeared in their first theatrical feature film, 1979's The Muppet Movie. The film was both a critical and financial success;^[20] it made US$65.2 million domestically and (at the time) was the 61st highest-grossing film ever made.^[21]

A song from the film, "The Rainbow Connection", sung by Henson as Kermit, hit No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1981, a Henson-directed sequel, The Great Muppet Caper, followed, and Henson decided to end the still-popular Muppet Show to concentrate on making films.^[2] From time to time, the Muppet characters continued to appear in made-for-TV-movies and television specials.

In addition to his own puppetry projects, Henson also aided others in their work. In 1979, he was asked by the producers of the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back to aid make-up artist Stuart Freeborn in the creation and articulation of enigmatic Jedi Master Yoda. Henson suggested to Star Wars creator George Lucas that he use Frank Oz as the puppeteer and voice of Yoda. Oz voiced Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back and each of the four subsequent Star Wars films, and the naturalistic, lifelike Yoda became one of the most popular characters of the Star Wars franchise. Lucas even lobbied unsuccessfully to have Oz nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.^[22]

In 1982, Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation to promote and develop the art of puppetry in the United States. Around that time, he also began creating darker and more realistic fantasy films that did not feature the Muppets and displayed "a growing, brooding interest in mortality."^[14] With 1982's The Dark Crystal, which he co-directed with Frank Oz and also co-wrote, Henson said he was "trying to go toward a sense of realism—toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive [where] it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to [present] the thing itself."^[10] To provide a visual style distinct from the Muppets, the puppets in The Dark Crystal were based on conceptual artwork by Brian Froud.

The Dark Crystal was a financial and critical success, and, a year later, the Muppet-starring The Muppets Take Manhattan (directed by Frank Oz) did fair box-office business, grossing $25.5 million domestically and ranking as one of the top 40 films of 1984.^[23] However, 1986's Labyrinth, a Crystal-like fantasy that Henson directed by himself, was considered (in part due to its cost) a commercial disappointment. Despite some positive reviews (The New York Times called it "a fabulous film"),^[24] the commercial failure of Labyrinth demoralized Henson to the point that son Brian Henson remembered the time of its release as being "the closest I've seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed."^[14] The film later became a cult classic.^[25] Henson and his wife also separated the same year, although they remained close for the rest of his life.^[3] Jane later said that Jim was so involved with his work that he had very little time to spend with her or their children.^[3] All five of his children began working with Muppets at an early age, partly because, as Cheryl Henson remembered, "one of the best ways of being around him was to work with him".^[8]

Later career[link]

Though he was still engaged in creating children's television, such as the successful eighties shows Fraggle Rock and the animated Muppet Babies, Henson continued to explore darker, mature themes with the folk tale and mythology-oriented show The Storyteller (1988). The Storyteller won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program. The next year, Henson returned to television with The Jim Henson Hour, which mixed lighthearted Muppet fare with riskier material. The show was critically well received and won Henson another Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program, but was canceled after 13 episodes due to low ratings. Henson blamed its failure on NBC's constant rescheduling.^[26]

In late 1989, Henson entered into negotiations to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company for almost $150 million, hoping that, with Disney handling business matters, he would "be able to spend a lot more of my time on the creative side of things."^[26] By 1990, he had completed production on a television special, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, and a Disney World (Later Disney California Adventure Park as well) attraction, Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D, and was developing film ideas and a television series titled Muppet High.^[3]

[edit] Natural History Project and Dinosaurs

In the late 1980s, Henson worked with illustrator/designer William Stout on a feature film starring animatronic dinosaurs with the working title of The Natural History Project. In 1991, news stories written around the premiere of The Jim Henson Company-produced Dinosaurs sitcom highlighted the show's connection to Henson. "Jim Henson dreamed up the show's basic concept about three years ago," said a New York Times article in April 1991. "'He wanted it to be a sitcom with a pretty standard structure, with the biggest differences being that it's a family of dinosaurs and their society has this strange toxic life style,' said [his son] Brian Henson. But until The Simpsons took off, said Alex Rockwell, a vice president of the Henson organization, 'people thought it was a crazy idea.'"^[27] A New Yorker article said that Henson continued to work on a dinosaur project (presumably the Dinosaurs concept) until the "last months of his life."^[28]

Illness and death[link]

During production of his later projects, Henson began to experience flu-like symptoms.^[3] On May 4, 1990, Henson made an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show, one of his last television appearances. At the time, he mentioned to his publicist that he was tired and had a sore throat, but felt that it would go away.^[3]

On May 12, 1990, Henson traveled to Ahoskie, North Carolina, with his daughter Cheryl to visit his father and stepmother. The next day, feeling tired and ill, he consulted a physician in North Carolina, who could find no evidence of pneumonia by physical examination and prescribed no treatment except aspirin.^[29] Henson returned to New York on an earlier flight and cancelled a Muppet recording session scheduled for May 14.^[3]

Henson's wife Jane, from whom he was separated, came to visit and sat with him talking throughout the evening. At 2 am on May 15, Henson was having trouble breathing and began coughing up blood. He suggested to his wife that he might be dying, but did not want to bother going to the hospital which would have gone against his religion. She later told People Magazine that it was likely due to his desire not to be a bother to people.^[3]

Two hours later, Henson finally agreed to go to New York Hospital. By the time he was admitted at 4:58 am, he could no longer breathe on his own and had abscesses in his lungs. He was placed on a mechanical ventilator to help him breathe, but his condition deteriorated rapidly into septic shock, despite aggressive treatment with multiple antibiotics. After two cardiac arrests over 20 hours after he was admitted, Jim Henson died on the morning of May 16, 1990, at the age of 53.

The official cause of death was first reported as Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterial infection.^[4] Bacterial pneumonia is usually caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, an alpha-hemolytic species of Streptococcus. Henson's cause of death, however, was organ failure resulting from Streptococcus pyogenes, a severe Group A streptococcal infection.^[30] S. pyogenes is the bacterial species that causes strep throat, scarlet fever, and rheumatic fever. It can also cause other infections.

On May 21, a public memorial service was held in New York City at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Another one was held on July 2 at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. As per Henson's wishes, no one in attendance wore black, and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band finished the service by performing "When the Saints Go Marching In". Harry Belafonte sang "Turn the World Around," a song he had debuted on The Muppet Show, as each member of the congregation waved, with a puppeteer's rod, an individual, brightly colored foam butterfly.^[31][32] Later, Big Bird (performed by Caroll Spinney) walked out onto the stage and sang Kermit the Frog's signature song, "Bein' Green".^[33] Henson was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery. His ashes were scattered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at his ranch.^[34]

In the final minutes of the two-and-a-half hour service, six of the core Muppet performers sang, in their characters' voices, a medley of Jim Henson's favorite songs, culminating in a performance of "Just One Person" that began with Richard Hunt singing alone, as Scooter.^[35] "As each verse progressed," Henson employee Chris Barry recalled, "each Muppeteer joined in with their own Muppets until the stage was filled with all the Muppet performers and their beloved characters."^[33] The funeral was later described by LIFE as "an epic and almost unbearably moving event." The image of a growing number of performers singing "Just One Person" was recreated for the 1990 television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson and inspired screenwriter Richard Curtis, who attended the London service, to write the growing-orchestra wedding scene of his 2003 film Love Actually.^[36]

Henson's sudden death resulted in an outpouring of public and professional affection. There have since been numerous tributes and dedications in his memory. Henson’s companies, which are now run by his children, continue to produce films and television shows.

Legacy[link]

The Jim Henson Company and the Jim Henson Foundation continued after his death, producing new series and specials. Jim Henson's Creature Shop, founded by Henson, also continues to build creatures for a large number of other films and series (e.g. the science-fiction production Farscape, the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the movie MirrorMask) and is considered one of the most advanced and well respected creators of film creatures. His son Brian and daughter Lisa are currently the co-chairs and co-CEOs of the company; his daughter Cheryl is the president of the foundation. Steve Whitmire, a veteran member of the Muppet puppeteering crew, has assumed the roles of Kermit the Frog and Ernie, the most famous characters formerly played by Jim Henson.^[37]

On February 17, 2004, it was announced that the Muppets (excluding the Sesame Street characters, which are separately owned by Sesame Workshop) and the Bear in the Big Blue House properties had been sold by Henson's heirs to The Walt Disney Company. However, as a result, Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop), also lost the rights to Kermit the Frog, and he could no longer appear on any new material on Sesame Street, although Kermit did later appear on the premiere of the show's 40th season on November 10, 2009.

One of Henson's last projects is a show attraction in Walt Disney World and Disneyland featuring the Muppets, called Muppet*Vision 3D, which opened in 1991, shortly after his death.

The Jim Henson Company retains the Creature Shop, as well as the rest of its film and television library including Fraggle Rock, Farscape, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.^[38]

In 2010 it was announced that the first major biography of Henson, sanctioned by the family and the Jim Henson Legacy, was under way.^[39]

Tributes[link]

• Henson is honored both as himself and as Kermit the Frog on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Only two other people have received this honor: Mel Blanc, the voice actor of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck; and Walt Disney, the voice actor of Mickey Mouse.
• The theater at his alma mater, Northwestern High School, in Hyattsville, MD, is named in his honor.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and The Muppet Christmas Carol are both dedicated to him.
• Stephen Lynch produced a song titled "Jim Henson's Dead", in which he pays homage to many of the characters from The Muppet Show and Sesame Street.
• Henson featured in The American Adventure in Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort.
• Philip Roth often quotes Jim Henson in his Sabbath's Theater as the "great regret" for Mickey Sabbath.
• The Jim Henson Museum, located in his hometown of Leland, Mississippi, features an assortment of original Muppet characters, official certificates from the Mississippi Legislature honoring Henson and his characters, and a statue of Kermit in the middle of the stream behind the museum.
• The 1990 television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson allowed the Muppets themselves to pay tribute to Henson. The special featured interviews with Steven Spielberg and others.
• Celtic singer, musician, and songwriter Heather Alexander wrote a song titled "Storyteller" in 1990 as a tribute to Jim Henson which harkens to his "Storyteller" series as well as his role as a modern storyteller.
• Tom Smith's Henson tribute song, "A Boy and His Frog", won the Pegasus Award for Best Folk Song in 1991.
• Henson was featured in Boyz II Men's 1991 video, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday".
• Episode 2880 of Sesame Street (which aired on November 15, 1991) was dedicated in his memory, with a memorial card following the closing credits.
• The classes of 1994, 1998, and 1999 at the University of Maryland, College Park, Henson's alma mater, commissioned a life-size statue of Henson and Kermit the Frog, which was dedicated on September 24, 2003, Henson's 67th birthday. The statue cost $217,000, and is displayed outside Maryland's student union.^[40] In 2006, Maryland introduced 50 statues of their school mascot, Testudo the Terrapin, with various designs chosen by different sponsoring groups. Among them was Kertle, a statue by Washington DC artist Elizabeth Baldwin designed to look like Kermit the Frog.
• On the evening of October 25, 2000, Comedy Central had a banner sign that said: Jim Henson [1936–1990].
• In 2003, Jim Henson was honored at the annual Norsk Høstfest in Minot, North Dakota.^[41]
• Oury Atlan, Thibaut Berland, and Damien Ferri wrote, directed, and animated a 3D tribute to Henson entitled Over Time that was shown as part of the 2005 Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH.
• The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia, has acquired more than 700 puppets created by Henson and his studio, including some of the earliest Muppets. Many of these are displayed in the museum exhibit Jim Henson: Puppeteer. In September 2008, the Center opened Jim Henson: Wonders From His Workshop, highlighting creations from Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, and other later works.
• On September 24, 2011, Henson's hometown of Leland renamed one of their bridges "The Rainbow Connection" to honor Henson and his work.^[42] He was also honored with a Google doodle on his 75th birthday; the Google logo had six Muppets that were clickable using the “hand” buttons.^[43]

References[link]