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14th Jul 2017

The voice actor who played Kermit the Frog has been fired after 27 years

Tough break.

Conor Heneghan

Kermit

Steve Whitmire, the puppeteer who has provided the voice for the iconic character, Kermit the Frog, has stepped down from the role after doing it for 27 years.

According to Deadline, Whitmire said he is devastated by what he described as a “drastic action” by Disney’s Muppets Studio and in a blog post that appears no longer accessible, he was adamant that the decision to leave was not taken voluntarily.

“I would never consider abandoning Kermit or any of the others because to do so would be to forsake the assignment entrusted to me by Jim Henson, my friend and mentor, but even more, my hero,” Whitmire wrote.

Whitmire, who has worked for the Muppets since 1978, had been providing the voice of Kermit the Frog since 1990 following the death of Muppets creator Jim Henson.

It was confirmed earlier this month that Whitmire would be replaced in the role by Matt Vogel, who has worked with the Muppets since the 1990s.

Whitmire said that the first he heard of the decision by the studio was in October of last year, when studio executives mentioned “two stated issues” believed to be behind the recasting of Kermit the Frog.

Neither Whitmire nor Disney have elaborated upon what those issues might be, but Whitmire revealed that he did his best to resolve them in the time since.

“As I am sure you can imagine, I have experienced every possible emotion since October 2016, when I received a phone call from The Muppets Studio’s executives to say they were recasting,” Whitmire wrote.

“Through a new business representative, I have offered multiple remedies to their two stated issues which had never been mentioned to me prior to that phone call.

“I wish that we could have sat down, looked each other in the eye, and discussed what was on their minds before they took such a drastic action.”

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Topics:

Sesame Street,TV