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Bill Barretta
American puppeteer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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William Barretta is an American puppeteer, producer, writer, director, and actor, best known for his involvement with the Muppets. Barretta performs the Muppet characters Pepe the King Prawn, Bobo the Bear and Johnny Fiama, he also inherited the roles of Rowlf the Dog, The Swedish Chef, and Dr. Teeth after Jim Henson’s death in 1990. He originated the role of Louie, Elmo's dad, on Sesame Street.
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Barretta began performing with The Jim Henson Company in 1991, as the body performer of Earl Sinclair on Dinosaurs.[2] He later developed several new characters on Muppets Tonight, including Pepe the King Prawn, Johnny Fiama, and Bobo the Bear.[2]
Barretta has taken over several of Jim Henson's roles, such as Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, and Swedish Chef.[3][4] His Muppet film debut was in the 1996 Muppet Treasure Island as Clueless Morgan.[5] He had several roles in Muppets from Space (1999)[6] and served as Muppet captain on The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted.[4][7] He played the main puppet character Phil Phillips in The Happytime Murders (2018),[8] which won a Houston Film Critics Society best worst film award.[9]
For Sesame Street, Bill Barretta originated the role of Elmo's dad, Louie,[10] in 2006. At first, Louie only appeared in a few direct-to-video specials, becoming a regular character later on. Barretta based Louie's voice on Louis Prima's.[11] In 2010, Tyler Bunch took over the role after consulting with Barretta. In an interview, Barretta explained that he had to fly to New York for every appearance on Sesame Street, so once Louie started to appear more often, it was much more practical for a New York-based puppeteer to take over the role.[11]
Barretta has served as a producer on various Muppet projects, including It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005). In 2014, he served as a co-producer on Muppets Most Wanted.[12] He also served as an executive producer on the ABC series, The Muppets.[13] For Disney+, Barretta produced Muppets Haunted Mansion[14] and co-created The Muppets Mayhem, which won a Children's and Family Emmy Award in 2023.[15][16]
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