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| PERFORMER | Jeffrey Tambor |
| DEBUT | 2005 |
The Wizard is the ruler of the Emerald City and Oz, as seen in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Actually a former tour bus driver named Francis Cornfine from Hollywood, CA. The Wizard came to Oz and the residents assumed he was an all-powerful figure. Cornfine's talent at manipulating his fingers impressed the populace, and feeling a need to "give the public what they want," he developed a number of devices and tricks to maintain the illusion of "Oz, the great and powerful."
The Many Faces of the Wizard
Through a complex system of special effects, the Wizard is able to appear to supplicants as an enormous, mythical being of some kind. His forms vary according to the person seeing him, and serve as a front for his more mundane appearance. He appeared as a dragon to The Cowardly Lion, a fire-like entity with a face to The Scarecrow, a sexualized woman that transforms into a chicken to the Tin Thing, and a big, green monster-like head to Dorothy and Toto.
Julianne Buescher performed the Wizard's female form.
Other Portrayals
- In "The Wizard of Foz," a comic from Muppet Magazine issue 4, the role was played by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. One of the faces of the Wizard in the comic was Fozzie Bear.
- Kermit the Frog played the role of the Wizard in The Wonderful Winter of Oz.
Notes
- The forms the wizard takes in his first scenes are based mainly on the ones described in L. Frank Baum's book. However, except for Dorothy's seeing the head, the movie makes some changes regarding which character sees which identity. In the book, the scarecrow sees the lovely lady, the tin woodman a terrible beast (which the dragon is meant to represent here), and the lion the ball of fire.