Jim Henson

A life-long puppet lover, Henson was instrumental in developing one of America's longest-running and best-loved children's television shows, Sesame Street (1969– ). He provided the voices and puppeteering talents behind Kermit the Frog, Ernie, and Guy Smiley. He and Frank Oz took the muppets to their own show, The Muppet Show (1976–80) and Fraggle Rock (1983–88) before leaping to the big screen in The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).