Trivia

Was good friends with George Lucas, who originally offered him the role of Yoda in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). He declined and suggested Frank Oz for the role.

Died a few days before the weekend he was going to sell his company to Disney, for a reported $150 million. Henson actually planned to give a good deal of the proceeds to the Muppet performers, employees of the Henson company and longtime associates. The sale would have also included a number of lucrative provisions for Henson. Besides the lump sum of cash, Henson would receive a fifteen year production deal with Disney which would have included feature films and television specials, casting power over the Muppet performers, veto power over the use of Kermit the Frog and an entire area of the Disney-MGM Studios theme park devoted to the Muppet characters. Disney Imagineers had granted Henson design input for the area, which would have also included several new attractions and shows.

Jim once appeared on a radio show and brought Kermit the Frog with him. The sound person, without thinking, pinned a lapel mic to Kermit's collar.

Had been sick with walking pneumonia for several days before his death but never told anybody, not even his family, because, true to his character, he didn't want to be a burden to anybody. By the time he finally sought medical help, it was too late to do anything.

His funeral at St. John the Divine in New York was attended by over 1,000 people and Muppets, including Frank Oz, George Lucas, Richard Curtis, Kermit the Frog and Lord Lew Grade.

Created the original Kermit the Frog out of his mother's old coat and a ping-pong ball. In the beginning, Kermit was not a frog, but a lizard-like character. He gradually evolved, and first appeared as Kermit the Frog in Hey Cinderella! (1969) and has remained so ever since.

In The Muppet Movie (1979), in which Kermit the Frog sang "The Rainbow Connection" while perched on a log in the middle of a swamp, required Henson to perform from a specially designed diving bell underwater.

Henson's final televised appearance was on The Arsenio Hall Show (1989), just 12 days before his death.

Henson's alma mater, University of Maryland, commissioned a life-size statue of Henson and Kermit the Frog, which was dedicated on September 24, 2003.

Had a hit single singing "Rubber Duckie" as Ernie. "Rubber Duckie" entered the Billboard Top 40 chart for pop/rock in August 1970 and stayed on the chart for seven weeks, peaking at number 16. The 'famous' rubber-duck-squeaking solo in the original version of the song (for the very first "Sesame Street album") is squeaked by the song's writer, Jeff Moss. When the Sesame Street (1969) cast appeared in concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the rubber duck was considered a percussion instrument. Apparently unwilling to pay musicians to play a 'second instrument,' duck squeaking was limited to the percussion section when the cast sang this song with the Pops (with Big Bird conducting).

Upon his death, it was said that Rowlf the Dog would never be used again, for this was Henson's signature character. As a memorial of sorts, Rowlf is seen in a few shots of both Muppet Treasure Island (1996) and Muppets from Space (1999) both times performed by Bill Barretta. However, out of respect for Henson, Rowlf did not speak. It was not until The Muppets (2011) that the character had dialogue (spoken by Barretta).

On a trip to Europe, he saw puppet theater being taken seriously by adults. He returned to the United States convinced he could create a puppet television show that would appeal to adults.

Died the same day as Sammy Davis Jr..

A memorial service for Henson was held at London's St Paul's Cathedral following his death. At the entrance to the church was a plinth, on top of which sat Kermit the Frog, around his neck was a sign saying: "I've lost my voice".

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) was dedicated to his memory.

Harry Belafonte sang the much beloved song "Turn the World Around" from The Muppet Show (1976) at Jim's funeral. It was reported to be his favorite.

Was a lifelong fan of science fiction.

One of the main reasons why Henson preferred to use Kermit the Frog for his signature character was that he was the lightest in weight of the regular puppets and therefore one of the most comfortable for use for extended periods of time.

He requested that no one wear black at his memorial service. This was because he wanted the memorial to focus on his life rather than his death.

According to an interview with Frank Oz, Jim wanted to direct and produce a film version of "Beauty and the Beast" in the late 1980s, with Tom Cruise playing the handsome prince who would turned into a beast. The storyboard was very similar to Disney's movie, even with the servants turned into magical objects, when the Walt Disney Company announced its intention of doing an animated version of the fairy tale, he decided not to go through with the production.

Arrived at his high school graduation in a new Rolls Royce Silver Cloud which he had bought with money he had already earned with his puppets on his local NBC station. Remained a lover of expensive, luxury cars, whose collection would include a "Kermit-green" Lotus.

Named Kermit the Frog after a childhood friend from Mississippi.

His original name for the Muppets was the Anything People.

Once said his earliest artistic influence was his grandmother, Dear. She taught him to value and appreciate everything he saw around him.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) was one of his favorite films.

Henson had hoped to sell his company to Disney to allow himself more time to focus on producing, directing and performing. One major sticking point in the potential sale of the Henson company was the rights to the Sesame Street (1969) characters, which Henson adamantly refused. Over all, Henson found the deal extremely frustrating and exhausting, though a good relationship with friend Michael Eisner, then CEO of Disney, helped smooth things over. Following Henson's sudden death, Disney again insisted on procuring the Sesame Street (1969) characters as part of the deal, which forced the Henson family to cancel the sale. Only in 2004, after the Sesame Street (1969) had been fully sold to the Sesame Workshop, did the Henson family allow the sale to move forward.

His first television character was called Pierre, the French Rat. It began life as a comic strip drawn by Henson for a high-school publication in 1954.

Although Jim Henson remained married to Jane Henson throughout his adult life, the two maintained an open marriage throughout their relationship. He and Jane legally separated in 1986 yet always remained close and never divorced.

In his early television shows, he didn't always perform voices, but lip-synched to records of the day.

1961: Met Frank Oz in Asilomar, California.

Father of Brian Henson, Lisa Henson, Heather Henson, Cheryl Henson and John Henson.

"Lydia the Tattooed Lady" was one of his all-time favorite songs. The Muppets performed this song at his memorial service. Henson himself drew the tattoos on the Lydia, the female tattooed Muppet used in episode 2 of The Muppet Show (1976).

Was pictured on a USA 37¢ commemorative stamp issued 28 September 2005, which was issued on a single souvenir sheet honoring "Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets". The souvenir sheet contained 10 additional 37¢ stamps featuring the following Muppet characters: Kermit the Frog; Fozzie Bear; Sam the Eagle; Miss Piggy; Steve Whitmire & Dave Goelz; The Swedish Chef; Animal; Dave Goelz & Beaker; Rowlf; and Dave Goelz & Camilla.

His earliest puppetry influences were Kukla, Fran Allison and Ollie, Bil Baird and Edgar Bergen.

Apart from his family and puppets, his greatest passion in life was music.

A Jim Henson retrospective was held from September 1990 to February 1991 at London's Museum of the Moving Image.

His death was a complete shock due to the fact that he didn't tell anyone he was sick.

Publicly criticized NBC after the cancellation of MuppeTelevision (1987), blaming the network's constant shifting of the show's time slot for its demise.

Henson based his early Muppet designs on the drawings in "Pogo" by Walt Kelly.

Along with Frank Oz, painted an unsightly configuration of pipes in his dressing room of The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957) into Muppet designs late one night in 1964. Oz and Henson also incorporated various feathers, fur and fabric swatches into their unusual work. Today, the studio maintains the pipes as a specially preserved historical exhibit.

Before his career in puppetry, he would experiment with 8mm and 16mm film, often making animation.

Suffered severe depression after the critical and commercial failure of Labyrinth (1986).

First met David Lazer when he had been contracted to make a few short puppet films for them. Lazer worked at IBM.

Cited Jen from The Dark Crystal (1982) as the hardest puppet for him to perform, because Jen was very lifelike, very "human".

The Muppet Show (1976) became an immediate international success winning numerous awards while also attracting a worldwide audience of some 235 million in over 100 countries.

Henson was raised on and was heavily influenced by the early television shows of comics Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs.

Attended Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Founded the "UNIMA Citations of Excellence" in 1973 to provide a peer-judged award for the art of puppetry in North America. In 1966, Jim Henson had previously founded (with other American puppeteers) the USA chapter of the Union Internationale de la Marionette (UNIMA) - the world's oldest international theatre arts organization, and served as the USA Chapter's founding chairman.

During his college years, he won a local Emmy Award for a regular five-minute show on a Washington, D.C. television show featuring his own puppets. After graduating from the University of Maryland, he moved to New York where the Muppets made regular appearances on such as "The Today Show", "The Tonight Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show".

He has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant": The Muppet Movie (1979).