He created over a hundred memorable characters during a career that spanned over 30 years. His skills as a puppeteer were ground-breaking and he succeeded in developing some of the best-loved children’s television shows.

From Kermit the Frog to Rizzo the Rat, all of Jim Henson’s puppets were especially beloved by children. However, they also brought out the kid in even the most cynical of adults.

His was a talent which, even after his death on 16 May, 1990, still continues to inspire and influence generations today.

James Maury Henson was born on September 24, 1936, in Mississippi, America, where he was raised a Christian Scientist.

Though he began his working life as a Sunday School teacher, he later withdrew from the Church and, in 1954, took a job at WTOP-TV. It was at this television station in Washington D.C. where he first began experimenting with puppetry and characters such as Sam and Friends were created.

Sam and Friends, as well as a primitive version of what would go on to be the famous Kermit, were met with unexpected success. They soon began to appear as guests on chat shows all over America and even secured a series of commercials with coffee giant Wilkins.

During the early sixties, Mr Henson and his wife moved to New York. As well as producing a number of experimental films here, he also formed Muppets Inc. which later joined with the Children’s Television Workshop to create Sesame Street in 1969. A fictional city neighbourhood peopled by such Muppet creations as Ernie, Bert and the Cookie Monster, Sesame Street taught children in over 120 countries basic educational and social skills. The programme earned a whole host of awards, as well as a line of popular merchandise, but Mr Henson remained unsatisfied.

In 1975, he finally found support for The Muppet Show, a series created especially for older viewers. Hosted by Kermit, and featuring a cast of other unforgettable Muppet characters, it was a sensation and crossed age-boundaries all over the world. Major celebrities queued up to make guest appearances, including John Cleese, Steve Martin and Diana Ross.

The show went on to inspire the Muppet movies, which featured many of the same characters and were the first films to feature puppets interacting with humans in real-world locations.

In 1982, Mr Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation to promote and develop the art of puppetry. He also established Jim Henson’s Creature Shop which has since become a highly respected flagship of film industry special effects technology, most recently responsible for the creatures in TV’s Farscape and film-adaptation of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Eight years later, on 16 May, 1990, he succumbed to pneumonia at the early age of 53. Both children and adults mourned his loss. At the funeral service, many guests were moved to see Kermit on his coffin with a sign that read, ‘I lost my voice.’

Today, members of the Henson family sit on the board of directors at the Jim Henson Company. The Muppets were sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2004 but the Sesame Street characters remain his.

He received a number of honours and tributes from the entertainment industry after his death, perhaps the most moving of them all being the CBS TV special ‘The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson’ broadcast in November, 1990.

It is a credit to him that he never believed his own hype. As Mr Henson himself once said, “Nobody creates a fad. It just happens. People love going along with the idea of a beautiful pig. It’s like a conspiracy.”