Though he's own as a puppeteer first, he is also a master voice artist. Best recognized for performing with Jim Henson's Muppets. His characters have included Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam the Eagle on The Muppet Show, and Grover, Cookie Monster and Bert on Sesame Street, among many others.
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 puppeteer in over 75 movies, 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, though he has retired from the Muppets. His Muppets were taken over by Eric Jacobson, though Oz still performs his characters on occasion. He also worked with the puppets on the movie Labyrinth, starring David Bowie.
Oz is also well known as the performer of Jedi Master Yoda from George Lucas' Star Wars series. Oz performed the voice and puppet for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, and provided the voice of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) Yoda in Attack of the Clones and 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."[6] Oz had a great deal of creative input on the character and was himself responsible for creating the character's trademark syntax (whose nature some professional syntacticians discuss in their spare time.[7] George Lucas was so impressed by Oz's performance as Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back that he tried to get him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Here's just a couple of the hundreds of performances he did with Jim Henson, here's Frank as Cookie Monster and Fozzie Bear:
In 1964, while waiting to appear on The Jack Parr Show, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Juhl, and Don Sahlin colorfully painted and decorated a set of pipes found in their dressing room's utility closet. Known as the "Muppet Pipes," this historical piece of "affectionate anarchy," as Frank Oz calls it, was excavated and is now a part of NBC's 30 Rock Studio Tour.
You can watch this morning's segment from the Today Show below where Frank Oz explains the history of these pipes and helps cut the ribbon on this new part of the studio tour:
Oz also appeared on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams that evening, and it includes a more lengthy interview with him. Watch it here:
Here's a partial voice acting credit list
| Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, The (1999, Live Action/Puppet Film) | Bert | |
| Cookie Monster | ||
| Grover | ||
| Follow That Bird (1985, Live Action/Puppet Film) | Bert | |
| Cookie Monster | ||
| Grover | ||
| Frog Prince, The (1971, Live Action/Puppet Special) | Frogs | |
| Jim Henson's Animal Show with Stinky and Jake (1994, Puppet Series) | Sam the Eagle | |
| Little Muppet Monsters (1985, Animated/Puppet Series) | Fozzie Bear | |
| Monsters, Inc. (2001, Computer Animated Film) | Fungus | |
| Muppet Christmas Carol, The (1992, Live Action/Puppet Film) | Animal | |
| Fozzie Bear (Fozziwig) | ||
| George the Janitor | ||
| Miss Piggy (Emily Cratchit) | ||
| Sam the Eagle | ||
| Vegetable Vendor | ||
| Wagon Driver | ||
| Muppet Family Christmas, A (1987, Puppet TV Special) | Animal | |
| Bert | ||
| Cookie Monster | ||
| Fozzie Bear | ||
| Grover | ||
| Marvin Suggs | ||
| Miss Piggy | ||
| Sam the Eagle | ||
| Muppet Show, The (1976, Live Action/Puppet Series) | Animal | |
| Fozzie Bear | ||
| George | ||
| Marvin Suggs | ||
| Miss Piggy | ||
| Sam the Eagle | ||
| Muppet Treasure Island (1996, Live Action/Puppet Film) | Animal | |
| Benjamina Gunn / Miss Piggy | ||
| Mr. Samuel Arrow / Sam the Eagle | ||
| Squire Trelawney / Fozzie Bear | ||
| Muppets from Space (1999, Live Action/Puppet Film) | Animal | |
| Fozzie Bear | ||
| Miss Piggy | ||
| Sam the Eagle | ||
| Muppets Take Manhattan, The (1984, Live Action/Puppet Film) | Animal | |
| Cookie Monster | ||
| Fozzie Bear | ||
| Miss Piggy | ||
| Sam the Eagle | ||
| Muppets Tonight (1996, Live Action/Puppet Series) | Animal | |
| Fozzie Bear | ||
| Miss Piggy | ||
| Sam the Eagle | ||
| MuppetVision 3D (1990, Attraction) | Fozzie Bear | |
| Miss Piggy | ||
| Sam the Eagle | ||
| Saturday Night Live (1975, Live Action Series) | The Mighty Favog | |
| Sesame Street (1969, Puppet/Live Action/Animated Series) | Bert | |
| Cookie Monster | ||
| Grover | ||
| Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999, Live Action Film) | Yoda | |
| Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002, Live Action Film) | Yoda | |
| Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005, Live Action Film) | Yoda | |
| Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Live Action Film) | Yoda | |
| Star Wars: Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi (1983, Live Action Film) | Yoda |
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