All About Muppets

Benita Steinmann was a German puppeteer and graphic artist who performed Uli von Bodefeld on Sesamstrasse from 1978-1988 when the character was retired. I don't know why the character Uli got retired after the performer left, but it was the producer's choice to remove Uli after licensing issues. Benita began her career as a graphic designer, and she soon transitioned to puppetry upon marrying puppeteer Peter Klaus Steinmann. After Steinmann left her job on Sesamstrasse, she went on to perform in 57 plays, though it's currently unknown what some of those 57 plays she did were. At least she got to perform with many other international Sesame Street performers. Performers such as Martina Klose, Kerstin Siebmann-Roders, Lothar Klose, and Peter Roders, just to name a few. Someday, someone will find plays Benita Steinmann did in her career and archive them so people can know all about this German puppeteer. Sadly, her life came to an end in December 1996, for she died of lung can...

Tony Basilicato was a puppeteer and writer who worked as an additional Muppet performer on The Muppet Movie, his only known Muppet credit. It's a shame he never did any other project featuring the Muppets in his career. Though a few years later, Tony worked with Muppet performer Lisa Buckley and ALF performer Paul Fusco in a 1981 Halloween special called The Crown of Bogg. In addition to playing the role of King Mildew, Basilicato also co-wrote the special and became a writer from there. Years later, he focused more on writing children's books, penning Buzz & Flutter's Big Electronic Game Book, the comic Prime Slime Tales, and numerous other books. The image above shows him in 1991 with one of his puppet creations Grandpa Crusty, though it's currently unknown what show the character appeared in. It's too bad there weren't any other productions Tony Basilicato did that are listed on his Muppet Wiki page, it's probably considered lost. But at least he stil...

Caleb Fullam was a puppeteer, designer, writer, and director who was known for his many puppets shows throughout his career. He was also one of the puppeteers on the show Whirligig which featured numerous Muppet performers such as Bruce Edward Hall, Nikki Tilroe, Rick Lyon, and Alison Mork. Caleb also worked with Tilroe on a 1992 theatrical show called The Poet's Eye, basing their work on revered classics such as Shakespeare and Japanese folklore. Fullam may not have done any Muppet productions, but he did get to perform alongside legendary Muppet designer Kermit Love on Whirligig. Apart from The Poet's Eye, his other best-known pieces include The Conquering Worm, The Magician's Secret Garden, and A Full Elegy for a Parrot, to name a few. He was even the founder of his own two companies, one for adults and one for kids, The Other Glove Theatre and Tatterdemalion Puppets. Caleb Fullam was even a part of the National Puppet Conference in 2000 and 2001 where he created and per...

Basil Twist is a puppeteer and director based in New York who is best known for his underwater puppet show called Symphonie Fantastique. Since 1998, he has been directing and performing puppet shows to live orchestra music like in Master Peter's Puppet Show, Dogugaeshi, and Hansel & Gretel, just to name a few. Basil seems to be another one of those puppeteers to work in operas and anything classical, similar to James Ortiz, Mary McClung, and Haley Who. Twist also made the puppetry for the Broadway productions of The Addams Family and The Pee-Wee Herman Show, both in 2010. Some of the projects he did have used unique styles of puppetry like Symphonie Fantastique was done in a water tank. His other abstract puppetry techniques include creating wind puppetry for Red Beads and in Dogugaeshi he used Japanese sliding screens to tell the story. It would seem that Basil Twist has a taste in unique styles of puppetry and he somehow manages to direct them so well, working alongside other...

Jody St. Michael is a mime and occasional suit performer who has performed on a few projects by the Creature Shop. He worked on Dinosaurs (as the Clerk in a 3rd season episode), George of the Jungle (a gorilla), and The Country Bears (as Tennessee O'Neil). I don't know why Jody only performed on three Creature Shop projects in his career, but still, three is better than nothing. Outside, St. Michael has been seen as a gorilla performer on many projects such as Gorillas in the Mist, The Last Chance Detectives: Legend of the Desert Bigfoot, X-Files, and Father Dowling Mysteries. Other films include Monkeybone and Hellraiser: Bloodline while other TV shows include CHiPs (out of costume) and The Chronicle. He must have been very tired performing in-suit as a lot of creatures. Other performers Jody St. Michael got to work with at the Creature Shop include Leif Tilden, Mak Wilson, Julianne Buescher, Denise Cheshire, and many mothers. He may have only done a few Creature Shop producti...

Kirsten Langbo was a Norwegian children's writer, singer-songwriter, puppeteer, and entertainer who had entertained children across Norway for years. She started out as a writer for silly articles in the newspaper Drammens Tidende before becoming a children's entertainer. Kirsten later made appearances in the 1950s performing her own songs and told her childhood stories, like on a Norwegian radio show. Langbo even appeared in NRK television shows as a ventriloquist with hand puppets which she did later in her musical career. From 1978 onwards, she became a popular entertainer and toured across Norway doing her puppet shows and songs, with over eighty registered songs. In addition, to children's entertainment, she is also an author of many Norwegian books with her first one being Morn igjen which released in 1957. Kirsten Langbo could have performed on the Norwegian co-production of Sesame Street, Sesam Stasjon, performing alongside Hanne Dahle, Geir Borresen, Asmund Huser, ...

Annie Katsura Rollins is an artist, puppeteer, and scenic designer who is specialized in Chinese shadow puppetry. She was apprenticed by many people in this art, even spending a year in China learning shadow puppetry from masters Cui and Wang. Annie also created and performed two shadow bike tours during her time in China and apprenticed with Master Shi and Master Liu as well as others. Rollins then created a full-length work known as There's Nothing to Tell and performed it in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As for her career, she worked with the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, created the set for the dance piece Black Label Movement, and designed puppets for the puppet adaptation of The Purple Flower. In addition to performing shadow puppetry, Annie Katsura Rollins also taught workshops at Open Eye Figure Theatre and the Center for Puppetry Arts. I'll bet she met some Muppet performers during her time at the Center for Puppetry Arts, because they are always training new pup...

Wilhelm Helmrich was a German puppeteer who performed Finchen from 1986-1991 on the German co-production of Sesame Street, Sesamstrasse. On that show he got to work with other German puppeteers such as Marita Stolze, Kerstin Siebmann-Roders, Herbert Langemann, and many others. Outside Wilhelm was a principal puppeteer on the show Hallo Spencer from the beginning in 1979 to 1991 as Elvis and other recurring/minor characters. Helmrich played the devil figure Nero, villager Edigus Soltanelle, Kalle Akademix in a spin-off series, and numerous others. I wonder how he got selected to perform on Hallo Spencer and Sesamstrasse during his career. It's a shame he never did any other production after 1991 as that's the year he died. Despite being gone, Wilhelm Helmrich will never be forgotten by those who've worked with him and the German viewers who've seen his work on those shows. He also worked with a bunch of other puppeteers who worked on Sesamstrasse later in their careers. ...

Neal Scanlan is a British special effects artist and make-up artist who has worked on numerous Creature Shop productions from 1985-2005. He started out as one of the puppeteers on Dreamchild before being in the workshop for Labyrinth, The Storyteller, TMNT films, Dinosaurs, and Babe, the latter won him an Academy Award. Neal had the pleasure to work with Jim Henson and other legendary Muppet performers during his time with them, before and after Jim's death. Scanlan must have had a lot of training prior to making animatronic characters for films and television shows over the years. Outside, he is perhaps best-known for working on the Star Wars sequel trilogy and standalone films. He is also the founder and head designer/builder of his own company Neal Scanlan Studios, making costumes, puppets, and animatronics for film and television. Some of the other films Neal Scanlan did include Little Shop of Horrors, Babe: Pig in the City, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Jurassic World...

Rod Coneybeare was a Canadian puppeteer, voice actor, and writer who was best-known for performing both Jerome the Giraffe and Rusty the Rooster on The Friendly Giant. During the long run of the show, he got to meet two puppeteers who worked on Sesame Park, Bob Stutt and Nina Keogh. In addition, Rod also created a short-lived series called The Bananas and did a radio program called The Rod and Charles Show, with Charles Winter. Besides that, Coneybeare wrote numerous original radio dramas for CBC as well as original plays and the miniseries Royal Suite. It's a shame he never puppeteered on any other productions besides The Friendly Giant, though he was probably too busy on show doing his best characters. Other than puppetry and writing, he was a voice actor for several cartoons such as X-Men: The Animated Series, Babar, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and even Jim Henson's Dog City. But if Rod Coneybeare did work on Dog City, then there should be sources for that. At least he...