Donald George Sahlin (June 19, 1928 – May 29, 1978) was a
Muppet
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...
designer and builder who worked for
Jim Henson from 1962 to 1977.
Sahlin began making puppets at age 11, initially building a
shadow theater and cardboard figurines. As an adult he built several puppets for ''
Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' and created special effects sequences for films such as ''
G.I. Blues
''G.I. Blues'' is a 1960 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley and Juliet Prowse. The movie was filmed at Paramount Pictures studio, with some pre-production scenery shot on location in Germany before Pr ...
'' and ''
The Time Machine''.
[
His first creation for Jim Henson was Rowlf the Dog, which he built in 1962 for a series of ]Purina Dog Chow
Purina may refer to:
*Ralston Purina, an American pet food company that was acquired in 2001
*Nestlé Purina PetCare, the pet food division of Swiss-based Nestlé S.A., and the acquirer of Ralston Purina Company in 2001 (subsequently merged with N ...
commercials. Don would go on to design and build most of the Muppet characters, including Bert and Ernie, Grover, and Cookie Monster among others. His character designs are often recognizable for their spheroid
A spheroid, also known as an ellipsoid of revolution or rotational ellipsoid, is a quadric surface obtained by rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes; in other words, an ellipsoid with two equal semi-diameters. A spheroid has cir ...
heads partially bisected to create large mouths. Although always based on sketches by Jim Henson, the Muppet founder regularly stated that it was Sahlin who should be credited with creating the actual Muppet "look", and Henson later had a bench in London dedicated to his memory. The series finale of '' Fraggle Rock'' is also dedicated to him. After all the regular credits have been shown, a special credit appears which reads "This show is for Don Sahlin".['']The Muppet Show
''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as a ser ...
'' Season One DVD
References
External links
*
Muppet designers
1928 births
1978 deaths
People from Stratford, Connecticut
Special effects people
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