David Charles Goelz (born July 16, 1946) is an American puppeteer and voice actor known for his work with the Muppets. He is best known for performing the characters Gonzo the Great, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot, and Beauregard. Goelz joined Jim Henson's Muppet team in 1973 and has been a key performer in many Muppet productions, including The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and various movies and television specials.

Early life

Goelz was born in Los Angeles, California. He had a childhood interest in puppetry, fascinated by the children's television shows Howdy Doody and Time for Beany. After graduating from John Burroughs High School in Burbank, he attended the Los Angeles Art Center College of Design, beginning his career as an industrial designer. Goelz applied to work at Walt Disney Imagineering, but was not considered on the basis that they had sufficient industrial designers already employed. Goelz went on to work for companies such as John Deere, American Airlines, and Hewlett-Packard. During this time, Goelz regularly viewed episodes of Sesame Street, fascinated with the design process behind the Muppet characters, costumes, and performances, leading him to wonder about the creators behind them.

Career

1972–1975: Early career

In 1972, Goelz attended a workshop conducted by Frank Oz at the Puppeteers of America National Convention in Oakland, California. One month later, following an invitation from Oz, Goelz attended daily tapings of Sesame Street during a work trip to Pennsylvania. During his visit, Goelz brought three puppets he had recently built. Impressed by his work, Bonnie Erickson, former head of the Muppet workshop, recommended that Goelz meet Jim Henson. Months later, Goelz presented his design portfolio to Henson, ultimately receiving a job offer with Henson Associates as a part-time puppet builder. His first assignment was to build puppets and design effects for a proposed Broadway stage play. However, the show was soon abandoned in favor of an ABC pilot, The Muppets Valentine Show, for which Goelz built characters and got his first chance at performing. Upon returning to California, Goelz had been replaced by his electronics employer. He then set up his own shop, creating puppets and producing videos for industrial clients. Eight months later, in the fall of 1974, Henson offered Goelz a full-time position as a designer and puppet builder, and occasional performer in specials, while allowing him to retain his main industrial clients. Returning to New York, Goelz began work on The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, where he built the puppets Nigel, Animal, Floyd Pepper, and Zoot, the latter becoming his first major character.

1976–1982: The Muppet Show and Gonzo

In 1976, Goelz traveled to London to begin work on The Muppet Show. In addition to reprising the role of Zoot, Goelz was promoted to principal Muppet performer with the starring role of The Great Gonzo. The puppet previously debuted in The Great Santa Claus Switch as Cigar Box Frackle and had made brief appearances in the Muppet Meeting Films and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, with different performers. Despite this promotion, Goelz was still employed in the Muppet workshop. Goelz recalled the hectic schedule of working full-time behind the scenes and in front of the cameras, describing his typical day as involving running back and forth between making puppets and performing. He admitted that he did not know anything about performing at the time and had no training for it. At the end of the first season, Goelz asked Henson if he could return the following year solely as a performer, to which Henson agreed. During the first season of the show, Gonzo was still being developed. Initially, Goelz was concerned about finding the right voice for the character. He conceived the voice on the morning of the first taping. Goelz later recalled that he believed he had the weakest voice among the Muppet performers and felt anxious about singing for the first time. Goelz viewed Gonzo as a misfit and out of place, mirroring his own feelings as a performer. The early design of Gonzo featured a permanently sad expression, which influenced Goelz to give the character a similarly depressed demeanor. Goelz described the character's downcast eyes as making him easier to play, reflecting his own feelings of being an impostor in show business and learning to perform and puppeteer on the job. At times, Goelz's portrayal of the character steered more comedic. Goelz ultimately began to feel limited by Gonzo's droopy eyelids, which made it difficult convey excitement and limited the character's emotions. After the first season, he asked Henson if he could build a Gonzo puppet with an eye mechanism, to which Henson agreed. Goelz returned to New York to make the modifications, allowing Gonzo to convey his excitement and enthusiasm more effectively. Gonzo's character evolved from a nervous, depressed failure to a manic, confident stuntman. Other facets of the character, such as his romantic fascination with poultry, were introduced in the second season. In addition to the starring role of Gonzo, Goelz also performed saxophone player Zoot and scientist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. In later seasons, Goelz introduced a new character, Beauregard, the slow-witted backstage janitor.

1983–1999: Fraggle Rock and Henson's death

In 1983, Goelz was cast in Fraggle Rock as Boober Fraggle. Goelz also performed Uncle Traveling Matt, Philo, and the World's Oldest Fraggle, as well as a variety of guests and incidental characters. Goelz also worked on Henson's forays into the fantasy genre, performing skekUng and Fizzgig in The Dark Crystal and Sir Didymus in Labyrinth. In 1986, Goelz played Rugby Tiger in The Christmas Toy, later reprising the role in The Secret Life of Toys. In 1989, Goelz performed Digit in The Jim Henson Hour. Following Henson's death in 1990, and with Oz focusing more on directing, Goelz's role as Gonzo gained increased prominence, beginning with The Muppet Christmas Carol. He portrayed Gonzo as Charles Dickens, a direction he embraced alongside his own growth as a performer. In 1992, Goelz took over the role of Waldorf from Henson. He introduced the characters Randy Pig and Bill the Bubble Guy in Muppets Tonight in 1996. In 1999, Gonzo's role in Muppets From Space marked Goelz's first leading role in a Muppet production. Goelz puppeteered the face of Earl Sinclair in Dinosaurs during the show's first two seasons. From 1996 to 1998, he performed Stinky the Skunk in Jim Henson's Animal Show and Humongous Chicken in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.

2000–present: Continued career

In 2002, Goelz was cast as the voice of Figment in the revamped version of Epcot's Journey Into Imagination with Figment ride at Walt Disney World Resort. Goelz continues to regularly perform in new Muppet productions. In 2011 and 2014, he reprised his roles as Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot, Waldorf, Beauregard and other signature characters in The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted, respectively. In 2023, Goelz performed Zoot in the Disney+ series The Muppets Mayhem. In 2015, Goelz voiced Subconscious Guard Frank in the Pixar film Inside Out. He reprised the role as Mind Cop Frank in Inside Out 2 in 2024. In 2019, he voiced Baffi the Fizzgig in the Netflix original series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Since 2018, he has voiced characters in various installments of the StoryBots franchise. Goelz reprised the voices of his Fraggle Rock roles in the Apple TV+ Fraggle Rock: Rock On! shorts in 2020, with puppeteering by John Tartaglia. Following the success of the shorts, a reboot of Fraggle Rock was ordered by the streaming service. Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock premiered on January 21, 2022, with Goelz continuing to provide voices of his characters and serving as co-executive producer.

Personal life

Goelz is married to Debra Goelz, a writer and former CFO of Jim Henson Productions. They have two children. Over the years, Goelz has sustained a number of injuries due to the physical positions Muppet performers must maintain for extended periods and contort into small spaces. These injuries have resulted in four shoulder surgeries and a hip replacement.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Other appearances