Richard Hunt (1951–1992) was a MuppetA Muppet is a puppet built in the soft foam-and-fleece style... performer who joined Jim Henson’s company as a teenager in 1970 and worked constantly for the next two decades.
Scooter. Beaker. Janice. Statler. Sweetums
A range that runs from a nervous stage manager to a wordless lab assistant to a laid-back guitarist — none of which sound related.
The right-hand craft
Hunt is remembered among performers as an exceptional live-hand partner, the person operating a character’s left arm while another performer worked the head and right arm. This is one of the least visible and most demanding jobs in puppetry: two people producing one continuous performance, sharing breath and timing so exactly that the audience never registers there are two of them.
Why that is worth an entry on a building site
If you build live hand puppets, you are building for two people, and the sleeve, cuff and glove all have to work for a second performer standing beside the first. Hunt’s reputation is the argument for taking that seriously.
Beaker
is the other lesson. The character has no dialogue — only a rising and falling meep — and reads clearly as anxious, put-upon and long-suffering. All of it comes from timing and physical reaction. Nothing about the puppet’s construction is doing that work.
He performed from 1970 to 1991
, across The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and the feature films. Jerry NelsonJerry Nelson (1934–2012) was a Muppet performer and singer... took over Statler afterwards, having originated the character in the first Muppet Show pilot.
For a performer, Hunt is the argument that reaction beats dialogue almost every time.