Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz, May 25, 1944, Hereford, England) is an English-born American puppeteer, filmmaker and actor. His career began as a puppeteer, where he performed the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in The Muppet Show, and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover in Sesame Street. He is also known for being the puppeteer and voice of Yoda in the Star Wars films.
His work as a director includes Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), What About Bob? (1991), In & Out (1997), Bowfinger (1999), The Score (2001) and Death at a Funeral (2007).
Oz is known for his work as a puppeteer, performing with Jim Henson's Muppets. His characters have included Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle on The Muppet Show, and Grover, Cookie Monster and Bert on Sesame Street.
In addition to performing a variety of characters, Oz has been one of the primary collaborators responsible for the development of the Muppets over the last 30 years. Oz has performed as a Muppet performer in over 75 productions including Labyrinth, video releases, and television specials, as well as countless other public appearances, episodes of Sesame Street, and other Jim Henson series. His puppetry work spans from 1963 to the present, although he retired completely from the Muppets in 2000. In 2001, his characters were taken over primarily by Eric Jacobson (with David Rudman as Cookie Monster).
Oz is also known as the performer of Jedi Master Yoda from George Lucas' Star Wars series. Jim Henson had originally been contacted by Lucas about possibly performing Yoda. Henson was pre-occupied and suggested Oz to be assigned as chief puppeteer and as creative consultant. While Stuart Freeborn designed and fabricated the Yoda puppet, Oz performed the voice and puppet for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Oz also provided the voice of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) Yoda in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. The conversion to CGI was met with some criticism among fans but Oz himself said that was "exactly what [Lucas] should have done." Oz had a great deal of creative input on the character and was himself responsible for creating the character's trademark syntax. Oz reprised his vocal role as Yoda in Disney's Star Tours–The Adventures Continue attraction at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios and in the Star Wars Rebels episodes "Path of the Jedi" and "Shroud of Darkness." He again reprised Yoda in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
