Steve Whitmire

Steve Whitmire is the kind of artist I most want people to remember: the master nobody sees. A puppeteer with the Jim Henson Company since 1978, he originated Rizzo the Rat and Wembley Fraggle and gave breath to characters that made millions of children laugh without ever knowing his name. Inheriting a beloved role and keeping it alive is brutally hard work, far heavier than launching something new. I have real reverence for craftsmen who perfect their art entirely outside the spotlight. The Muppets feel effortless precisely because people like him refused to let the seams show.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Steve Whitmire

Name (Japanese)

スティーヴ・ホイットマイア

Reading

すてぃーゔ・ほいっとまいあ

Born

September 24, 1959 (age 67)

Origin

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Occupation

voice actor / puppeteer / actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Boar

High school

Berkmar High School

• Official sitehttps://stevewhitmire.website/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve%20Whitmire
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B4%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9B%E3%82%A4%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A2
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34939

Tags

• Georgia
• voice actor
• puppeteer
• actor

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.