Richard Hunt

 Richard Hunt (August 17, 1951 – January 7, 1992)

Hunt was best known as a Muppet performer on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and other projects for The Jim Henson Company. After high school graduation, and a four-month stint of doing weather reports at a local radio station, Hunt pursued a meeting with Jim Henson. He cold-called from a payphone and was invited to audition. After being hired to work on Sesame Street, Hunt mostly performed background characters. One of his first major performances was as Taminella Grinderfall in The Frog Prince, physically performing the character while Jerry Juhl portrayed the voice. Hunt performed Scooter and shared Miss Piggy with Frank Oz until the final quarter of the first season of The Muppet Show. His characters on Sesame Street included Forgetful Jones, Placido Flamingo, Don Music, Gladys the Cow, and Sully; Hunt also briefly performed Elmo before Kevin Clash was cast in that role. On Fraggle Rock, Hunt's main role was the performing the facial expressions and voice of Junior Gorg; he also performed Gunge (one of the Trash Heap's barkers) as well as several one-shot or minor characters. Hunt also worked as a director of several home video releases such as Sing-Along, Dance-Along, Do-Along and Elmo's Sing-Along Guessing Game, as well as an episode of Fraggle Rock.

Hunt, who was openly gay, was known for his warm and energetic personality, often joking around with people between filming. Following the onset of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s, Hunt lost many friends, including his partner Nelson Bird in 1985, an artist who he lived with in Greenwich Village and, later, on the Upper West Side, and called “the most important person in my life.” Despite these losses, and being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s, Hunt was described by his friend, photographer Jesper Haynes, as “so positive and so life-affirming, in the middle of all this death around.” Richard Hunt died from AIDS complications on January 7, 1992 at age 40.