Jerry Nelson, whose versatile talents invigorated Muppet productions for six decades through characters like The Count Von Count, Emmet Otter, and Lew Zealand, has died. He was 78.
Nelson’s path first crossed with that of Jim Henson while both worked at NBC affiliate WRC in Washington, D.C.—Nelson as a page and Henson as onscreen talent, using WRC as the home base for early Muppet commercials and his first TV series, Sam And Friends. Yet it wasn’t until both were living and working in New York City that Nelson, having performed with puppeteer Bil Baird as part of Baird’s “Show-Go-Round” presentation at the 1964/65 World’s Fair, inquired about working with Henson. In need of a performer to fill in for the departing Frank Oz, Henson requested an audio tape of character voices from his prospective collaborator. Though Henson turned up his nose at an ...
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