Steve Whitmire

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.

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 in 1990. Whitmire was personally asked by Brian Henson and Jane Henson to be Kermit's performer a few weeks after Jim Henson's death. 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. Following the death of Richard Hunt and the retirement of Jerry Nelson, Whitmire took over the roles of Beaker and Statler, respectively. In 2014, Billy Barkhurst took over the role of Ernie, with Peter Linz taking over that role in 2017.

The Henson family stated that issues with Whitmire began in the mid-1990s, with Brian Henson stating that Whitmire made "outrageous demands and often played brinkmanship", and said that he should have dismissed Whitmire and recast Kermit before Disney acquired the Muppets in 2004, because "I knew that it was going to be a real problem". 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 Whitmire was unwilling to appear. She also stated that he "blackballed young performers".

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.

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. Whitmire revealed 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 consulted with the Henson family, who supported the recasting of Kermit and Whitmire's dismissal.

Happy Birthday Jim Henson and Steve Whitmire!

Today, September 24th, marks the birthday of both Jim Henson and Steve Whitmire, two of the greatest entertainers of all time. Last year we payed tribute to Jim and Steve with a collection of pictu…