Bob Payne

Bob Payne is a puppeteer and a puppet creator who was an old college friend of Jim Henson and his wife Jane Henson. His first work with the Muppets was puppeteering on Sam and Friends. It was like an entire decade ago that Bob performed with Henson. His work was late seen on The Muppet Show and on Sesame Street, creating and occasionally performing puppets. On Sesame Street, Payne was the first Telly Monster and other characters for two seasons. For the Muppets, Bob served as a guest puppeteer for The Muppet Show and assisted in the first two films, The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper. His last known puppetry work was in the Creature Shop film, The Dark Crystal as one of the Skeksis (lip-syncing to John Baddeley's voice). His last puppet building work was on Fraggle Rock. I have no idea what happened to him after that, but I hope he's okay. And I especially hope that he heard about Jim Henson's death. Bob Payne is like the first puppeteer to ever work with him. He even made a guest appearance on the non-Muppet show Mister Roger's Neighborhood. Wherever Bob is now I wish him luck, and I hope he can reveal where he is. Bob Payne, keep on puppeteering.