Frank Oz Biography

Oz was born in Hereford, England, to Frances and Isidore Oznowicz. Both his parents were puppeteers. His Dutch-Polish father and Flemish mother struggled with the Nazi invasion and moved to England and later, immigrated to California when Oz was 5.

He attended the Oakland Technical High School and later went to Oakland City College. He was attracted to puppets from an early age and by the time he was 18 he had learned a lot about puppets - courtesy parents.

He met with Jim Henson at a puppeteering conference and Henson liked his work with puppets and a few years later, he asked him to join his Muppets team.

In 1963, he joined the Muppets, Inc. as an associate with ‘Rowlf the Dog’ and later on ‘The Jimmy Dean Show’. He was just 19 at that time. Henson and Oz performed as ‘Scoop and Skip’, ‘Southern Colonel and Nutty Bird’, etc.

A new program for children called ‘Sesame Street’ started in 1969 and Oz invented the characters ‘Bert’, ‘Grover’, and ‘Cookie Monster’, and performed them solely for many years. During this time, he also did minor characters, including ‘Lefty the Salesman’.

During the time between the start of ‘Sesame Street’ and the beginning of ‘The Muppet Show’, Oz was in almost every major Henson production—‘The Great Santa Claus Switch’, ‘The Frog Prince’, and ‘The Muppet Musicians of Bremen’.

By 1976, Henson grew exasperated by the constraints of working on someone else's program. In an attempt to gain creative control over his artistic ideas, Henson produced ‘The Muppet Show’ and Oz became the key creator of the show.

Oz created ‘Miss Piggy’, ‘Fozzie Bear’, and ‘Animal’, ‘Sam the Eagle’, ‘George the Janitor’ and ‘Marvin Suggs’ for ‘The Muppet Show’. He also wrote ‘The Rhyming Song’ and ‘Jamboree’ and was credited as a creative consultant on the show.

In 1980, George Lucas wanted a puppet character for his Star Wars movie, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. This work was assigned to Oz and he worked as chief puppeteer. He created ‘Yoda’ and was responsible for giving the creature its trademark reversed grammar.

Oz started experimenting with his directorial aspirations as he co-directed ‘The Dark Crystal’ with Henson in 1982. The film used the most sophisticated puppets ever used for a movie. Oz also co-directed ‘The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)’.

He directed his first movie 'Little Shop of Horrors’ in 1986. The musical starred Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin, and a 15-foot-tall talking plant. The movie established Oz’s talent to direct films that did not include puppets.

Oz directed comedies like: ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)’--starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, ‘What About Bob? (1991)’-‘Housesitter (1992)’, ‘Bowfinger (1999)’, ‘The Score (2001)’, ‘Death at a Funeral (2007)’, etc.

As an actor, he has appeared in movies like: ‘The Blue Brother (1980)’, ‘An American Werewolf in London (1981)’, ‘Superman III (1983)’, ‘Spies Like Us (1985)’, ‘Innocent Blood (1991)’, ‘Blue Brothers 2000 (1998)’, ‘Monsters, Inc. (2001)’, ‘Zathura (2005)’, and ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).’

In 2014, he made an appearance in the American documentary film ‘I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story’ directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad N. Walker. The film opened to a positive critical reception and earned an 84% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes. The following year, he voiced ‘Subconscious Guard Dave’ in the Pete Docter-directed animated film ‘Inside Out.’ The film opened to critical acclaim and was a major commercial success, managing to bag over $858.8 million on a $175 million budget.

He has also starred in films like ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ (2017), ‘Knives Out’ (2019), and ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ (2019).

Although Oz’s career has been versatile and he has not only worked as a puppeteer but also as a director, actor, and voice-artist, etc. His work, along with Jim Henson, with ‘Sesame Street’ is considered his top-notch one.

Oz has received many awards for his creative talent. Some of these are News & Documentary Emmy Award (1974), Daytime Emmy Award (1976 and 1978), Primetime Emmy Award (1978), and Art Directors Guild Award for Contribution to Cinematic Imagery (2002).

Oz has been married twice: Robin Garsen (1979-2005)—the couple had four children together, and actress Victoria Labalme (2011-present).