Jim Henson's Real Name: James Maury Henson

Quick answer: The puppeteer is known professionally as Jim Henson. Biography.com, the Mississippi Encyclopedia, and Encyclopaedia Britannica independently give the name James Maury Henson and date the birth to September 24, 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi. Biography.com and Encyclopaedia Britannica independently date his death to May 16, 1990.

Real name and early life

Independent publishers identify him under the professional name Jim Henson and give the longer name James Maury Henson. Biography.com dates the birth to September 24, 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi, says he spent early years in nearby Leland, and later moved with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, when he was in fifth grade. The Mississippi Encyclopedia independently dates the birth to 24 September 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi, and says the family moved to Hyattsville when he was in fifth grade. Encyclopaedia Britannica independently records the same birth date and place and says he grew up in Hyattsville.

Career highlights

The Mississippi Encyclopedia says he debuted Sam and Friends in 1955 on Washington's NBC station, WRC-TV, with an early version of Kermit the Frog, that the show won a local Emmy in 1958, and later records Sesame Street in 1969, The Muppet Show in 1976, the films The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), and later work including The Dark Crystal (1982), Labyrinth (1986), and Fraggle Rock. Biography.com independently records Sam and Friends, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and The Muppet Movie, which it says Henson directed, and later television including Fraggle Rock and Jim Henson's The Storyteller. Encyclopaedia Britannica independently describes him as creator of the Muppets, records Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, the same three Muppet films, and says he coined the term Muppets as a meld of marionettes and puppets.

Death

Biography.com and Encyclopaedia Britannica independently date his death to May 16, 1990. Biography.com says he died of pneumonia at age 53. The Mississippi Encyclopedia says he died of a bacterial infection in 1990 at the age of 53. Encyclopaedia Britannica lists the place of death as New York, New York.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Jim Henson or James Maury Henson are looking for the same puppeteer, including the Muppets and Sesame Street work most often associated with his name. Search traffic often uses the professional name Jim Henson in many lookups.