Faz Fazakas

Franz "Faz" Fazakas (April 5, 1918 – September 28, 2013) was a special effects designer and puppeteer who contributed to many Muppet productions. Fazakas began his puppetry career in the 1950s with Bil Baird and his marionettes, performing in the Broadway show Flahooley (with Barbara Cook, playing a lion) as well as 1960s off-Broadway puppet productions (often alongside Jerry Nelson), including versions of The Wizard of Oz (as the Tin Woodsman) and Winnie the Pooh (as the title character).
Fazakas first worked with Jim Henson as a puppeteer in the early 1970s on the Tales from Muppetland specials. However, his primary talents lay in devising mechanical devices to increase the range of movement and expression of the puppets, and for many years he was head of the electro mechanical department of the Muppet Workshop. The eye mechanisms on characters such as Big Bird and Sweetums were his contribution, as were the rods and cable control systems used to control tiny characters such as Rizzo the Rat and the Doozers. The latter, however, benefited most directly from Fazakas' radio controlled mechanisms, variations of which were also used for the faces of full-bodied characters such as the Gorgs. The rowing scene in Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and the rat cooking scenes in The Muppets Take Manhattan are perhaps the most direct showcases of Fazakas' work.
In 1992, Fazakas, along with Brian Henson, Dave Housman, Peter Miller, and John Stephenson, shared the Academy Awards' Scientific and Engineering Award for developing the Henson Performance Control System. This system, an advancement from the earlier radio controls, was used to create complex facial expressions as well as detailed body movements, such as finger joints, for Dinosaurs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, amongst others. According to coverage of the event by The Hollywood Reporter, Fazakas drew laughs and applause during the group's acceptance, quipping, "The Turtles are like many of our politicians. They're all human except for the heads." Fazakas left the company a few years later.
==Muppet/Henson credits==
;Designer/Builder
*The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence: Special props
*The Muppet Show: Muppet designer
*Sesame Street: Muppet designer
*Ice Follies (1977 season): Muppet costumes designer and builder
*Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas: Radio control effects (boat, mechanical otter bodies, Kermit the Frog on bicycle)
*The Muppet Movie: Muppet designer
*The Great Muppet Caper: Technical designer
*The Dark Crystal: Radio control design
*Fraggle Rock: Muppet special effects director
*Rocky Mountain Holiday: Muppet special effects
*The Muppets Take Manhattan: Muppet special effects
*Follow That Bird: Muppet special effects
*Labyrinth: New York puppet shop department
*Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Facial control development (uncredited)
;Puppeteer
*The Frog Prince
*The Muppet Musicians of Bremen
==Notes==
*According to Duncan Kenworthy, in interviews on the Fraggle Rock: Complete First Season DVDs, Faz Fazakas was the inspiration for Doc, and that Doc was actually mild compared to Fazakas when he was tinkering.
*In discussions of Fozzie Bear, Faz Fazakas is usually cited as one of the most likely inspirations for Fozzie's name.
==External links==
*No Doozer Makes a Move Without Faz Fazakas, article from TV Times (May 1983)
*Celebrating Faz Fazakas, tribute from the Jim Henson Company
*Faz Fazakas (1918-2013), tribute by Rob Mills
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Category:Designers
Category:Muppet Puppeteers