Richard Hunt (puppeteer)

Richard Hunt (August 17, 1951^[1] – January 7, 1992) was an American puppeteer, best known as a Muppet performer. Hunt's Muppet roles included Scooter, Beaker, Janice, Statler, and Sweetums.

Early life

Hunt was born in The Bronx, New York City on August 17, 1951, the second of five children. The family eventually moved to Closter, New Jersey some years later.

Because everyone in his family had worked in show business at some point, Hunt always felt he would end up in entertainment as well. While in middle school and high school, he put on puppet shows for local children, and he was a fan of the then-fledgling Muppets from a young age. After high school graduation and a four-month stint of doing weather reports at a local radio station, Hunt pursued a meeting with Jim Henson.^[3]

Career

After being hired to work on Sesame Street, Hunt mostly performed background characters in early specials. One of his first major performances was as Taminella Grinderfall in The Frog Prince, puppeteering the character while Jerry Juhl performed the voice.^[4]

He also did Scooter and shared Miss Piggy with Frank Oz until the final quarter of the first season of The Muppet Show. Hunt performed many characters on Sesame Street, including Forgetful Jones, Placido Flamingo, Don Music, Gladys the Cow, Sully, and an early version of Elmo. On Fraggle Rock, Hunt's main role was the performing the facial expressions and voice of Junior Gorg, but he also performed Gunge (one of the Trash Heap's barkers), and several one-shot or minor characters.

He has also directed several home videos such as Sing-Along, Dance-Along, Do-Along and Elmo's Sing-Along Guessing Game, as well as an episode of Fraggle Rock.

Hunt was good friends with fellow puppeteer Jerry Nelson. A lot of their characters were paired together such as Nelson's Floyd Pepper with Hunt's Janice; the Two-Headed Monster; and Nelson's Pa Gorg to Hunt's Junior Gorg on Fraggle Rock. Also on that show, Hunt's characters were often paired with those performed by Steve Whitmire.

Personal life

Hunt was openly gay.^[5] When Rudolf Nureyev, who was also openly gay, made a guest appearance on The Muppet Show, Nureyev rather bluntly hit on Hunt.^[6] Hunt was close friends with Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.

Death

Hunt died of AIDS-related complications on January 7, 1992 at the age of 40.^[7] Episode 3136 of Sesame Street and The Muppet Christmas Carol were dedicated to his memory. Following his passing, his roles were taken over by David Rudman, Steve Whitmire, and Jerry Nelson. In some instances, such as the film Muppets from Space, his brother Adam Hunt provided the voice in post-production.

Filmography

References

External links

• Richard Hunt at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Hunt at Find a Grave
• Muppet Central's Tribute to Richard Hunt