Mike Quinn (puppeteer)


Mike Quinn is an English puppeteer, animator, actor, director, producer, voice-over artist, puppet builder, composer and mentor. He is also known as Mike Quinby, Michael E. Quinn, and Michael Quinn.

Early life and career

Mike Quinn was born in Kent, England, and grew up in Enfield, Middlesex. He began puppeteering at age eight.
In 1977, Mike regularly visited the set of The Muppet Show with his homemade puppets, eventually meeting Jim Henson. Through his visits, he learned more about puppeteering and received encouragement from Jim Henson and his co-workers.
After leaving school in 1980, Quinn joined The Jim Henson Company and worked on the 1981 film The Great Muppet Caper puppeteering in crowd scenes and acting as a double for various main Muppet characters. Quinn later designed and built the Podlings for The Dark Crystal, where he also performed the Skeksis Slave Master SkekNa.
During the filming of Return of the Jedi, Quinn were assistant puppeteers to Frank Oz in his performance of Yoda. He also performed the role of Nien Nunb in Return Of the Jedi. Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, Quinn joined with fellow puppeteer David Barclay, creating Ultimate Animates, a production company specializing in new building and performing techniques for internal and external puppet productions.
Quinn joined George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic as an animator, first working on Jurassic Park III and then '.
He reprised his role as Nien Nunb in ', a role that he reprised again in ' and, and performed for the Disney theme park ride '.
In 2018, Mike Quinn provided the voice of the Stan Laurel-based character Agnes Packard in the Cartoon Network series, Mighty Magiswords opposing Ken Mitchroney voicing her Oliver Hardy-based husband Mr. Pachydermus in the episode "Pachydermus Packard and the Camp of Fantasy".

Personal life

From 1989 to 2004, Mike Quinn was married to fellow puppeteer Karen Prell.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1981The Great Muppet CaperAdditional Muppets
1982The Dark CrystalSkekNa - the slavemaster SkeksisPerformer plus puppet builder
1983Return of the JediNien Nunb and various rolesYoda
1985DreamchildPuppeteer
1986Little Shop of HorrorsPuppeteer
1986LabyrinthGoblins plus variousPuppeteer
1986The Tale of the Bunny PicnicBulbous, Mayor BunnyparteVoice
1988Who Framed Roger RabbitPuppeteer
1989How To Get Ahead In AdvertisingPuppeteer of the boil and growing head
1992The Muppet Christmas CarolUndertakerVoice; performer of Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear
1996Muppet Treasure IslandAdditional Muppets
Mary ReillySpecial effects Puppeteer
1998A Bug's LifeAnimator
1999Toy Story 2Animator, including the 'Woody's Roundup' TV sequence
2001Jurassic Park III Dinosaur animator
2002Animator
2005The Muppets' Wizard of OzAdditional MuppetsCredited as Michael Quinn
2011The MuppetsAdditional Muppets
2014Muppets Most WantedAdditional Muppets
2015'Nien Nunb
2017'Nien Nunb
2019Nien Nunb

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1983–87Fraggle RockGobo Fraggle, Traveling Matt, Sprocket and variousrecorded regional variations for UK, Germany, France
1987Jim Henson's Mother Goose StoriesBrown Gosling, Humpty Dumpty, plus variousCredited as Mike Quinby
1988The StorytellerDevilEpisode: "The Soldier and Death" puppeteer
1989The Ghost of Faffner HallRiff, synthesiser fly13 episodes
1993The Great BongProducer, director, puppeteer, puppet builder
1994The Secret Life of ToysVarious, Rabbit Lamp
1994Jim Henson's Animal ShowChuck The Lion4 episodes
1995Heroes of ComedyDesigner, builder, performer of Max Miller puppetSeries 1, Episode 3
1995-97The Slow NorrisPuppeteer, Puppet Builder
2005The Muppets' Wizard of OzMuppet Performer
2013Shake It UpParrotEpisode: "Ty It Up"
2013Good Luck CharlieAdditional Muppet PerformerEpisode: "Duncan Dream House"
2013GleePuppeteerEpisode: "Puppet Master"
2015-16The MuppetsAdditional Muppet Performer
2018 -presentKiddingSecret Chef, Wedding Groomsman and Puppeteer4 episodes
Mighty MagiswordsAgnes PackardEpisode: "Pachydermus Packard and the Camp of Fantasy"-
2020Muppets NowAdditional Muppet Performer6 episodes

Event

YearTitleRoleNotes
2015TEDx TalkAssistant puppeteer to Kermit the Frog
2016Outside Lands Music Festival Golden Gate Park, San FranciscoMuppet Performer for Dr. Teeth and the Electric MayhemAugust 7
2017The Muppets Take the BowlAdditional Muppet PerformerLive show at the Hollywood Bowl, September 8–10
2018The Muppets Take the O2Additional Muppet Performer and voicesLive show at the 02 Arena London, July
2019 and continuingDisney Theme Park Ride 'Nien Nunb' at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland

Crew