Steve Whitmire

**Steven Lawrence Whitmire** (born September 24, 1959) is an American puppeteer, known primarily for his work on *The Muppets* and *Sesame Street*. Beginning his involvement with the Muppets in 1978, Whitmire inherited the roles of Kermit the Frog and Ernie after Jim Henson's death in 1990; he performed the characters until 2016 and 2014, respectively, though reprised the roles starting in 2019. As part of the Muppet cast, he has appeared in multiple feature films and television series, performing a variety of characters on *The Muppet Show*, *Sesame Street*, and *Fraggle Rock* and during such occupations has been employed by The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Workshop, and The Muppets Studio.

Currently, Whitmire is one of the executive producers and showrunners of the hit preschool show *Bluey*, positions he had in the 2016 pitch pilot and first three episodes and regained starting with the second season (replacing Tim Lagasse, who had filled in for season 1). He slo sevred as the voice of Bandit Heeler, the father of the household, in said pilot and first of the three episodes, as the crew could not get Nathan Lane to do the role.

## Biography

### Career

Whitmire first appeared (unpaid) at a pre-show event at Six Flags Over Georgia. He performed with his then alter-ego puppet Otis for the children waiting to see a multimedia show.

Before graduating high school, Whitmire had his first "professional" puppeteering job using Otis at "The World of Sid & Marty Krofft" in Atlanta, the first indoor theme park. From there Whitmire appeared on local Atlanta TV live for 2 1/2 hours every day on "The Kids Show with Otis" taking telephone calls from children and adults. The show received more than 2000 calls per hour. WATL was owned at that time by former Atlanta children's television host "Officer Don" Kennedy. Otis made appearances on various WATL 36 shows with Atlanta's Ludlow Porch, performing with the Georgia Bulldogs' Larry Munson, Don Kennedy, and Entertainment Page host Artie Goodman. As Otis, Whitmire interviewed Olivia Newton-John during a tour promoting an album.

He worked with puppets after graduating high school, and eventually got a job working on *The Muppet Show* in 1978. Since then, Whitmire performed in almost every major Henson company project, including non-Muppet projects such as *The Dark Crystal*, *Labyrinth*, and *Dinosaurs*.

### Characters Performed

Whitmire was the second performer of two signature Muppets—Kermit the Frog and Ernie—after the death of their creator and original performer Jim Henson (with whom he shared a birthday) in 1990. Whitmire was personally asked by Brian Henson and Jane Henson to be Kermit's performer a few weeks after Jim Henson's death. Heather Henson arranged for a Kermit puppet to be sent to Whitmire's residence; however, Whitmire hid the puppet away for weeks before deciding on taking on the role. Following the death of Richard Hunt and the retirement of Jerry Nelson, Whitmire took over the roles of Beaker and Statler, respectively. In 2014, Billy Barkhurst took over the role of Ernie, with Peter Linz taking over that role in 2017 and Whitmire returning in 2019.

Muppet characters original to Whitmire include Rizzo the Rat, Lips (the trumpet player from Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem), Foo-Foo (Miss Piggy's dog), Wembley Fraggle and Sprocket the Dog (puppetry only, with Rob Paulsen doing the voice) on *Fraggle Rock*, and Bean Bunny, a character that originated in *The Tale of the Bunny Picnic* (1986).

Whitmire voiced Link Hogthrob in the Muppet RaceMania and Muppets Party Cruise video games. He also performed Link for the 2011 film *The Muppets*. This was the first speaking appearance of the character since the death of Jim Henson, the original performer of Link. He also performed him in *Muppets Most Wanted*. In 2008, Whitmire took over another of Jim Henson's roles, The Muppet Newsman.

### Dismissal from and Return to the Muppets

In July 2017, The Muppets Studio announced that Whitmire was no longer involved with the Muppets and that fellow Muppet performer Matt Vogel was cast as Kermit's new performer. Whitmire revealed that he was dismissed from his roles in October 2016 because of undisclosed issues that he said had not been discussed before his dismissal. In their decision-making, The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) consulted the Henson family, who supported the recasting of Kermit and Whitmire's dismissal.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that same month, Whitmire stated he was dismissed for disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions. Whitmire alleged that Disney offered him what he called "consolation prizes" if he voluntarily left, including honoring him as a Disney Legend, under the public pretense that he would be retiring from performing. In a statement released to The New York Times, Debbie McClellan, then-head of The Muppets Studio, said that they "raised concerns about Steve’s repeated unacceptable business conduct over a period of many years, and he consistently failed to address the feedback".

In 2018, as Peter Linz had been cast as Kermit in order to sound more faithful to the character's original voice, the righ-hand man of Disney CEO Bob Iger, Bob Chapek, reminded him of the ripple effects that the firing of Whitmire would have on both the companies and the Muppets as a whole. This prompted Iger and The Muppet Studio to change their minds and rehire Whitmire the next year, apologizing for everything and giving him his roles back as well as the position of "creative in charge of production" for both the Muppets and *Bluey*. Whitmire sain in an interview that he "couldn't be happier to be back", though he did have a few words to say to Disney, The Muppet Studio and the Henson family one he was rehired, since it was revealed that Whitmire had been fired due to him being, in Iger's words, "too difficult to take advantage of".