Three puppeteers, including Richard Hunt, had performed Elmo previously, but it was Clash's development, with a falsetto voice, that established the character. After 1985, Elmo, a furry red monster, became his main character. Some of his earliest characters included the saxophone-playing Hoots the Owl (based on Louis Armstrong), the infant Baby Natasha, and inventor Dr. Clash started working at Sesame Street for ten episodes in 1983, mostly performing nondescript, stand-in puppets known as Anything Muppets. Career Ĭaptain Kangaroo was canceled in 1984 after 29 seasons, and Great Space Coaster ended, freeing up Clash to work on projects with Henson such as the film Labyrinth and Sesame Street. In 1984, Clash had to turn down Henson's offer to work on his film The Dark Crystal because he was working on two TV shows at the same time, Captain Kangaroo and Love's syndicated program The Great Space Coaster, in which he was producer for the first time. The producers of Captain Kangaroo used some of Clash's puppet creations for the show. When he was 19, Clash became a puppeteer for Captain Kangaroo, initially as a guest performer, in which he also made occasional on-camera appearances. In 1979, on Love's recommendation, Clash appeared as Cookie Monster in the Sesame Street float during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and met Jim Henson, who later became his boss, mentor, and good friend. When he was 17, he contacted and met puppeteer Kermit Love, who became Clash's mentor, after seeing Love featured in an episode of the children's educational television series Call It Macaroni. Clash also built puppets for the Romper Room franchise. While appearing at a neighborhood festival, Clash was discovered by Baltimore television personality Stu Kerr, who became Clash's first mentor and hired him to perform in the children's show Caboose at Channel 2. While still in high school, Clash performed at venues throughout Baltimore, including schools, churches, fundraisers, and community events. īy the time he was a teenager, he had built almost 90 puppets, which he based upon commercials, popular music, and his friends. His first performances were for his mother's daycare children. When he was twelve, he made a monkey puppet out of the lining of his father's coat. He made his first puppet, a version of Mickey Mouse, at the age of 10. Clash developed an interest in puppetry at an early age, inspired by children's shows like Kukla, Fran and Ollie and Sesame Street. Clash returned to puppeteering as a supporting performer in the adult comedy The Happytime Murders (2018).Ĭlash was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 17, 1960, the third of four children born to George Clash, a flash welder and handyman, and Gladys Clash, who ran a small daycare center in their two-bedroom, one-bath home in the Turner Station area of Dundalk, Maryland. Clash's autobiography, My Life as a Furry Red Monster, was published in 2006 he was later the subject of the documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011).Ĭlash resigned from Sesame Street in 2012 after allegations of sexual impropriety, all of which he denied and were later dismissed due to expiration of the statute of limitations. Clash worked in various productions with The Jim Henson Company and occasionally on other projects. He was the fifth puppeteer to perform Elmo, who became his signature character, and he also served as an executive producer and director for the show. He joined the cast of Captain Kangaroo in the early 1980s and began performing on Sesame Street in 1984. He also performed puppets for Labyrinth, Dinosaurs, Oobi, and various Muppet productions.Ĭlash developed an interest in puppetry at an early age and, in his teen years, performed for local television children's shows in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Kevin Jeffrey Clash (born September 17, 1960) is an American puppeteer, director and producer known for puppeteering Elmo on Sesame Street from 1985 to 2012.
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