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Kermit the Frog Muppeteer Says Disney Fired Him

Jul 13 2017

Critic's Notebook: If Harry Shearer leaves 'The Simpsons,' what will happen? Just ask Bugs Bunny

May 16 2015

Career

Whitmire first appeared (unpaid) at a pre-show event at Six Flags Over Georgia. He performed with his then alter-ego puppet Otis for the children waiting to see a multimedia show.

Before graduating high school, Whitmire had his first "professional" puppeteering job using Otis at "The World of Sid & Marty Krofft" in Atlanta, the first indoor theme park. From there Whitmire appeared on local Atlanta TV live for 2 1/2 hours every day on "The Kids Show with Otis" taking telephone calls from children and adults. The show received more than 2000 calls per hour. WATL was owned at that time by former Atlanta children's television host "Officer Don" Kennedy. Otis made appearances on various WATL 36 shows with Atlanta's Ludlow Porch, performing with the Georgia Bulldogs' Larry Munson, Don Kennedy, and Entertainment Page host Artie Goodman. As Otis, Whitmire interviewed Olivia Newton-John during a tour promoting an album.

He worked with puppets after graduating high school, and eventually got a job working on The Muppet Show in 1978. Since then, Whitmire performed in almost every major Henson company project, including non-Muppet projects such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Dinosaurs.³

Characters performed

Whitmire was the second performer of two signature Muppets—Kermit the Frog and Ernie—after the death of their creator and original performer Jim Henson (with whom he shared a birthday) in 1990.⁴ Whitmire was personally asked by Brian Henson and Jane Henson to be Kermit's performer a few weeks after Jim Henson's death.⁵ Heather Henson arranged for a Kermit puppet to be sent to Whitmire's residence; however, Whitmire hid the puppet away for weeks before deciding on taking on the role.⁶⁷ Following Richard Hunt's death and Jerry Nelson's retirement, Whitmire took over the roles of Beaker and Statler, respectively.⁸ In 2014, Billy Barkhurst took over the role of Ernie,⁹ with Peter Linz taking over that role in 2017.

Muppet characters original to Whitmire include Rizzo the Rat,¹⁰¹¹ Lips (the trumpet player from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem), Miss Piggy's dog Foo-Foo, Wembley Fraggle and Sprocket the Dog on Fraggle Rock, and Bean Bunny, a character that originated in The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986).

Whitmire voiced Link Hogthrob in the Muppet RaceMania and Muppets Party Cruise video games. He also performed Link for the 2011 film The Muppets. This was the first speaking appearance of the character since the death of Jim Henson, the original performer of Link. He also performed him in Muppets Most Wanted. In 2008, Whitmire took over another of Jim Henson's roles, The Muppet Newsman.

Dismissal from the Muppets

In July 2017, The Muppets Studio announced that Whitmire was no longer involved with the Muppets and that fellow Muppet performer Matt Vogel was cast as Kermit's new performer.¹² Whitmire stated that he was dismissed from his roles in October 2016 because of undisclosed issues that he said had not been discussed before his dismissal. In their decision-making, Disney (the parent company of The Muppets Studio) consulted the Henson family, who supported the recasting of Kermit and Whitmire's dismissal.¹³

Brian Henson stated that issues with Whitmire began in the mid-1990s, and said that Whitmire would make "outrageous demands and often played brinkmanship", mentioning that "Steve would use 'I am now Kermit and if you want the Muppets, you better make me happy because the Muppets are Kermit.' And that is really not OK."¹⁴ He additionally stated that Whitmire would "send emails and letters attacking everyone, attacking the writing and attacking the director".¹⁵ He also expressed guilt for not dismissing Whitmire and recasting Kermit before selling the Muppets to Disney in 2004, "because I knew that it was going to be a real problem".¹⁶ Lisa Henson stated that Whitmire was opposed to having an understudy for Kermit and refused to train one, which became problematic when it came to "B-level performances, such as a ribbon-cutting," at some of which she said he was unwilling to appear. She also stated that he "blackballed young performers" by refusing to appear in shows with them.¹⁷

However, several of Whitmire's fellow Muppet performers have voiced support for him. In 2017, Mike Quinn defended Whitmire against the accusations, stating that he had never seen anything that Whitmire was accused of doing, and that Whitmire was a "great guy, friend, performer, and an amazing creative with a good heart." ¹⁸ In a 2017 episode of the Defunctland Podcast, Terri Hardin, longtime Muppet performer who is still with the Henson Company, alleged that Whitmire was fired for wanting to keep the integrity of the Muppet characters, and was smeared as "a diva" and "hard to work with" to justify his firing. She also mentions Disney wanting to replace as many Muppet performers as possible to make their own "Disney-approved" version of them, mainly through recasting.¹⁹²⁰ Frank Oz spoke on the firing of Whitmire in a 2017 interview with Yahoo, stating "with Stevie it’s so sad, because the situation with Stevie was a pure business situation, as I understand it. I’d worked with Stevie since he was 18 years old, and on the floor he’s terrific. We had a lot of fun. So when he’s actually on the floor — I think it was something outside that. And it’s very sad."²¹ The next year, in 2018, Oz stated in an interview with ToughPigs that he was "very sad about what happened with Steve", stating that "when Steve was on the set he was always a joy to work with."²² Oz later stated in 2019 that he had invited Whitmire to be a part of his 2017 documentary The Muppet Guys Talking, but Whitmire was unable to attend.²³ In 2019, director and producer Kirk Thatcher stated that Whitmire was "a sweetheart on set, one of the easiest people to work with, and super giving with the other performers." ²⁴ In 2020, on Episode 5 of Bill Barretta's podcast "The Barretta Brothers", Barretta stated he loved and missed Whitmire and that he wasn't able to talk more about the situation.²⁵²⁶ Later that same year, on Episode 23 of the Barretta Brothers podcast, Peter Linz was featured as the guest. When asked "Do y'all miss Steve [Whitmire]?", Barretta and Linz both stated that they "absolutely miss" Whitmire and they "love him to death",²⁷ Barretta ending the question with "we miss the hell out of [Steve]" and Linz adding "we all do." In 2021, Whitmire was a guest on Episode 39 of the Baretta Brothers podcast, alongside many of his former Muppet performers, including Leif Tilden, Day Murch, Jane Gootnick, Bruce Lanoil, Michelan Sisti, Jill Thraves, Michael McFarlane, Kevin Clash, Terri Hardin, and John Kennedy. Other people involved with the Muppets and the Jim Henson Company who have shown they are still friendly with Whitmire include Muppet performer Noel MacNeal²⁸ and writer Jim Lewis, who acted as a producer/writer on Steve’s live-stream show Cave-In.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that same month, Whitmire stated he was dismissed for disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations between Disney and SAG-AFTRA (of which Whitmire is a member) that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.²⁹ Whitmire alleged that Disney offered him what he called "consolation prizes" if he voluntarily left, including honoring him as a Disney Legend, under the public pretense that he would be retiring from performing.³⁰ In a statement released to The New York Times, Debbie McClellan, then-head of The Muppets Studio, said that they "raised concerns about Steve’s repeated unacceptable business conduct over a period of many years, and he consistently failed to address the feedback".³¹ Whitmire expressed an interest in making amends and resuming his role with the Muppets in the future if possible.³²³³³⁴

On June 6th, 2025, Whitmire attended a fan event for the closure of Muppet*Vision 3D, "A Glorious 3 Day Finale" where he joined some of his former Jim Henson Company coworkers, Imagineers, and even Heather Henson, making it the first time Whitmire was seen with one of the Henson children since his dismissal by Disney.³⁵³⁶ On the following day, June 7th, Whitmire, Henson, and the other guests of the fan event then attended the final day of Muppet*Vision 3D together, where they screened the show several times and interacted with fans.³⁷ Whitmire was seen performing as Rizzo the Rat for the first time since his dismissal, using a fan's recreation Muppet.³⁸

Personal life

In June 1978, Whitmire married his wife Melissa. They met during his senior year at Berkmar High School in Lilburn, Georgia.³⁹⁴⁰ They live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Other appearances

External links

• Steve Whitmire at IMDb
• Steve Whitmire on Muppet Wiki

References

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2. Lloyd, Robert (May 16, 2015). "If Harry Shearer leaves 'The Simpsons,' what will happen? Just ask Bugs Bunny". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2015. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-critics-notebook-voices-carry-20150515-column.html ↩

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21. Watkins, Gwynne (October 20, 2017). "Frank Oz admits 'it hurt' to give up Muppets, says they'll never be as 'touching and soulful' (exclusive)". Yahoo. Retrieved June 20, 2025. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/frank-oz-admits-hurt-give-muppets-says-theyll-never-touching-soulful-185840501.html ↩

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33. Whitmire, Steve (July 13, 2017). "It's Time To Get Things Started…". Muppet Pundit. Steve Whitmire. Archived from the original on July 13, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017. https://stevewhitmire-muppetpundit.com/2017/07/11/its-time-to-get-things-started/ ↩

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36. Corless, Tom. "Legendary Muppet Performer Steve Whitmire Among Talents & Former Imagineers Gathering for MuppetVision 3D Farewell Event". WDW News Today. WDW News Today. Retrieved June 13, 2025. https://wdwnt.com/2025/05/legendary-muppet-performer-steve-whitmire-among-talents-former-imagineers-gathering-for-muppetvision-3d-farewell-event/ ↩

37. Guerilus, Stephanie (June 8, 2025). "Jim Henson's Daughter Makes Rare Public Appearance to Join Fans at the Closing of Muppet Vision 3D at Disney World". People Magazine. Dotdash Meredith. Retrieved June 13, 2025. https://people.com/jim-henson-daughter-heather-makes-rare-public-appearance-at-closing-of-muppet-vision-3d-disney-world-11750361 ↩

38. "Steve having some fun with a replica of Rizzo the Rat,.. on the last day of Muppet Vision 3D, PizzeRizzo and the courtyard being open". Instagram. Retrieved June 13, 2025. https://www.instagram.com/p/DK2MPpjM8wC/?hl=en ↩

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40. Hennes, Joe (October 15, 2008). "My Week with Steve: Day 4". ToughPigs.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014. http://www.toughpigs.com/my-week-with-steve-day-4/ ↩

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