File:2024-03-08_SXSW-2024_comedy-directors_1.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Frank Oz
Sign in to saveAlso known as Frank Richard Oznowicz
English and American director, actor, and puppeteer
Frank Oz is an English and American director, actor, and puppeteer known for working across film, television, and performance. He matters because he has contributed significantly to entertainment across multiple creative disciplines, including directing major films and performing with puppets.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 6
Top works
- Sam and Friends - the Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show (hardback)
- Sam and Friends - the Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show
- Trenton Doyle Hancock : Mind of the Mound
- The score
- The dark crystal
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · Hereford, Herefordshire, England, UK
Frank Oz (born Richard Frank Oznowicz; May 25, 1944) is a British-born American film director, actor, voice actor, and puppeteer. He is known for creating and performing the characters Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear in The Muppet Show and for directing films, including the Little Shop Of Horrors remake and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He is also the operator and voice of Yoda in the Star Wars franchise.
Known for
- The Muppet Script — Self (archive footage)2025
- fozzie descuido venga la alegría — Fozzie2025
- Inside Out 2 — Mind Cop Dave (voice)2024
- Jim Henson Idea Man — Self2024
- Disney Legends Awards Ceremony — Self2024
- STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces — Self - Director2024
- Jerry Nelson: A Celebratory Birthday Animatic — Grover (voice) / Cookie Monster (voice) / others (voice)2022
- Obi-Wan Kenobi — Yoda (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)2022
- LIGHT & MAGIC — Self - Yoda Puppeteer (archive footage)2022
- Echoes of Violence — Dante2021
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- Japan
- Active from
- 1944
Member of
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 1,822
- Total plays
- 9,976
Frank Oz (born May 25, 1944) is a British-born American film director, actor and puppeteer. Early life Oz was born Richard Frank Oznowicz in Hereford, England, the son of Frances and Isidore Oznowicz, both of whom were puppeteers. His parents were refugees from the Holocaust who moved to England after fighting the Nazis with the Dutch Brigades. Oz's Dutch/Polish father was Jewish and his Flemish mother was a lapsed Catholic. Oz moved to California, United States with his parents when he was
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based tools
· 2012 · cited 29,190x
- Intermolecular interactions from a natural bond orbital, donor-acceptor viewpoint
· 1988 · cited 16,698x
- Accurate normalization of real-time quantitative RT-PCR data by geometric averaging of multiple internal control genes
· 2002 · cited 16,050x
- The american rheumatism association 1987 revised criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis
· 1988 · cited 15,809x
- NMRPipe: A multidimensional spectral processing system based on UNIX pipes
· 1995 · cited 13,863x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “What Jim wanted to do, and it was totally his vision, was to get back to the darkness of the original Grimm’s fairy tales. He thought it was fine to scare children. He didn’t think it was healthy for children to always feel safe.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Frank Richard Oznowicz (born May 25, 1944), known professionally as Frank Oz, is an American puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through The Muppets, Sesame Street, and Star Wars, as well as his directorial work in feature films and theater.
The son of puppeteers, Oz worked as an apprentice puppeteer during his teenage years in Oakland, California. Despite his interest in journalism, he continued his career as a puppeteer when he was hired by the Jim Henson Company in 1963, going on to perform several television characters such as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle on The Muppet Show (1976–1981) and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover on Sesame Street from 1969 to 2013. He was hired by Lucas to perform as Yoda in the Star Wars film series, beginning with The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and reprising the role in seven subsequent films and various media for more than four decades.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Frank Oz” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.