Bert and Ernie

Today is the 67th birthday of creative genius Frank Oz.

How do I love him? Let me count some of the ways:

•  He was Jim Henson’s closest collaborator
• On The Muppet Show, Oz was Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal and Sam the Eagle
• On Sesame Street, Oz was Bert with Henson as Ernie and was Miss Piggy to Henson’s Kermit the Frog
• Also on Sesame Street, Oz played Cookie Monster and Grover.

Yoda

• Chief puppeteer and collaborator with George Lucas in creating Yoda for the Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back and was the puppet and voice for Yoda in that and later films
• Co-director, with Henson, of The Dark Crystal
• Directed the movies The Muppets Take Manhattan and Little Shop of Horrors
• Directed some of my favorite zany-yet-poignant movies: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob?, In and Out, and Housesitter
• I wanted to like it, but I wasn’t quite as thrilled with the Oz-directed Bowfinger
• Also directed The Stepford Wives and The Score