Steven Whitmire is an American puppeteer

Puppeteer

A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...

 who works for The Jim Henson Company

The Jim Henson Company

The Jim Henson Company, an American entertainment organization, traces its origins to the founding of Muppets, Inc. in 1958 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The Muppets helped the company gain worldwide acclaim in family entertainment for more than four decades...

, Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...

 and Disney's The Muppets Studio. He has been the performer of two signature Muppets

The Muppets

The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson starting in 1954–55. Although the term is often used to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark owned by the Walt Disney Company in reference...

 - Kermit the Frog

Kermit the Frog

Kermit the Frog is puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955. He is the protagonist of many Muppet projects, most notably as the host of The Muppet Show, and has appeared in various sketches on Sesame Street, in commercials and in public service announcements over...

 and Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

's Ernie

Ernie

Ernie is a fictional character, a Muppet on the Public Broadcasting Service's long-running children's television show, Sesame Street. He and his roommate Bert form a comic duo that is one of the program's centerpieces, with Ernie acting the role of the naïve troublemaker and Bert the world-weary foil...

 - since the death of their creator and original performer, Jim Henson

Jim Henson

James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...

, in 1990. Characters original to Whitmire include Rizzo the Rat

Rizzo the Rat

Rizzo the Rat is a Muppet, performed by Steve Whitmire. Rizzo first appeared in episode 418 of The Muppet Show, as one of a group of rats following Christopher Reeve around backstage. He can be seen mugging and reacting to practically every line of dialogue. He remained a scene-stealing background...

, Lips (the trumpet player from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem

Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem

Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem is the name of a Muppet rock band of The Muppet Show. Following The Muppet Show, they appeared in various Muppet movies and television specials, and have also recorded album tracks. Dr. Teeth and Animal were designed by Jim Henson, while the rest of the original...

), Foo-Foo

Foo-Foo

Foo-Foo is a fictional dog in The Muppet Show. She is a white poodle owned by Muppet diva Miss Piggy. She is very tender towards her, even to the point of sickly saccharine baby talk. In the first episode of Muppets Tonight, Piggy gets jealous of Michelle Pfeiffer and sics the poodle on her during...

 (Miss Piggy

Miss Piggy

Miss Piggy is a Muppet character who was primarily played by Frank Oz on The Muppet Show. In 2001, Eric Jacobson began performing the role, although Oz did not officially retire until 2002....

's beloved dog), Fraggle Rock

Fraggle Rock

Fraggle Rock is a children's live action puppet television program series created by Jim Henson. The central characters were a set of "Muppet" creatures called Fraggles. The show ran from January 10, 1983, to March 30, 1987, on CBC Television in Canada, ITV in the UK, HBO in the United States,...

's Wembley Fraggle, and Bean Bunny

Bean Bunny

Bean Bunny is one of the Muppets. His first appearance was in the HBO special The Tale of the Bunny Picnic. He is performed by Steve Whitmire...

. Following the death of puppeteer Richard Hunt

Richard Hunt (puppeteer)

Richard Hunt was an American puppeteer best known as a Muppet performer. Hunt's Muppet roles included Scooter, Beaker, Janice, Statler, and Sweetums.-Early years:...

 and the practical retirement of Jerry Nelson

Jerry Nelson

Jerry Nelson is an American Muppet puppeteer, known for his wide range of characters, singing abilities, and his frequent partnership with Richard Hunt.-Early years:...

, Whitmire took over the roles of Beaker

Beaker (Muppet)

Beaker is a Muppet character from The Muppet Show. He is the shy, long-suffering assistant of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and is likewise named for a piece of laboratory equipment, although his shape more closely resembles an Erlenmeyer flask....

 and Statler. He also voiced Link Hogthrob

Link Hogthrob

Link Hogthrob was a fictional character, a Muppet pig on The Muppet Show, performed by Jim Henson. The character was that of a stereotypical leading man, with wavy blond hair, a manly cleft chin, and a high opinion of himself, but not much between the ears....

 in the Muppet RaceMania and Muppet Party Cruise video games. Whitmire also appeared with Kermit at the National Puppetry Festival on July 15, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Career

Whitmire professed interest in puppetry in his childhood. While in high school at Berkmar High School, Whitmire swore to his classmates that he would one day be Kermit the Frog. Steve first appeared on local Atlanta TV with his then alter ego puppet Otis. WATL-TV was owned at that time by former Atlanta kids show host "Officer Don" Kennedy. Otis made appearances on various WATL 36 shows with Ludlow Porch, voice of the Georgia Bulldogs Larry Munson, Don Kennedy and Entertainment Page host Artie Goodman. Whitmire as his friend Otis, interviewed Olivia Newton John during a tour promoting her current album at the time. He worked with puppets after graduating high school, and eventually got a job working on The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...

in 1978. Since then, Whitmire has performed in almost every major Henson company project, including non-Muppet fare such as The Dark Crystal

The Dark Crystal

The Dark Crystal is a 1982 British-American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Although marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. The animatronics used in the film were considered groundbreaking. The primary concept artist was the...

, Labyrinth

Labyrinth (film)

Labyrinth is a 1986 British/American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee, Terry Jones from Monty Python, and Elaine May .The film stars David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin...

and the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 television series Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs (TV series)

Dinosaurs is an American family sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Television in association with Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista...

.

External links

• Muppet Wiki: Steve Whitmire
• "Ratting Out," a 1999 Muppet Central interview with Whitmire