Kermit puppeteer ‘devastated’ by sacking

LOS ANGELES — Steve Whitmire, the puppeteer who was fired after 27 years as Kermit the Frog, says he is “devastated to have failed” Muppets founder and his mentor Jim Henson.

Whitmire has been with the Muppets since 1978 and took over as Kermit after Henson died in 1990. Whitmire wrote an emotional blog post in response to his firing a day after it was made public.

He said he was let go against his will and would never have left voluntarily.

“For me, the Muppets are not just a job, or a career, or even a passion. They are a calling, an urgent, undeniable, impossibleto-resist way of life,” Whitmire wrote. “This is my life’s work since I was 19 years old. I feel that I am at the top of my game, and I want all of you who love the Muppets to know that I would never consider abandoning Kermit.”

Whitmire said he was informed that Kermit would be recast last October and had kept silent in the hope that he could get his bosses to change their minds.

He said he offered “multiple remedies” to the reasons he was given for his firing.

He would not say what those reasons were, nor would Muppet Studio or its parent company, Disney, which did not respond to requests for comment.

Muppets Studio told Time magazine that it “thanks Steve for his tremendous contributions to Kermit the Frog and the Muppets franchise. We wish him well in his future endeavours.”

The Hollywood Reporter and ABC News reported this week that longtime Muppets performer Matt Vogel will take over as Kermit.

Kermit was Henson’s signature character, and the centrepiece of the Muppets franchise, from 1955 until 1990. When Henson died, it was unthinkable for many to imagine someone else doing it.

But Whitmire took up the role, and became the only Kermit many of today’s young adults and kids have ever known.