Richard Hunt

Born in the Bronx but raised in New Jersey, famous puppeteer Richard Hunt came from a show biz family. After a brief stint doing weather reports at a local radio station, Hunt met Jim Henson, whose Muppets Hunt was a big fan of. He initially landed work as a puppeteer on "Sesame Street," where he performed the background Muppets. His work on the highly acclaimed educational children's program earned him two Daytime Emmy awards in 1976 and 1979. Not long after admirably performing Taminella Grinderfall and the monsterous Mupper Sweetums in the classic "Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince," Hunt was brought on to join the crew of "The Muppet Show," where he and Frank Oz traded off handling Miss Piggy, and he voiced Scooter, Janice, and Sweetums, among others. He also worked on another of Henson's classic 1980s puppet shows, "Fraggle Rock," where he performed the trash-heap guarding Junior Gorg. In addition his TV works, Hunt also performed in a number of the Muppet and Sesame Street movies. In addition to his puppeteer and voice work, he also directed several children's home videos, including "Sing-Along, Dance-Along, Do-Along" and "Elmo's Sing-Along Guessing Game." Sadly, Hunt's career was cut short when he died in early January of 1992 from AIDS-related complications. He was 41 years old.