5. Michael Kingsbury Frith
Net worth: $12 million
Michael Kingsbury Frith is the former Executive Vice-President and Creative Director for Jim Henson Productions. His contributions to Muppet projects have been extensive and varied. Frith was born in Bermuda and educated at Harvard College. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Beginner Books series, the line of books created by Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Seuss. He was also Dr. Seuss’s book editor and close personal friend. In 1971, when Random House began publishing Sesame Street books, Frith was named editor and art director of the Sesame series.
He joined Henson Associates full-time as Art Director in 1975. He was named Vice-President in 1978, and Executive Vice-President and Director of Creative Services in 1985. After the success of “The Muppet Show” series Henson wanted Frith, to create a new children’s show which would appeal to a much wider international audience.”Fraggle Rock” is the new show which emerged and subsequently ran for 4 seasons,96 episodes between 10 January 1983 and 30 March 1987.
This new show centered on “Muppet” creatures known as Fraggles, who live underground along with several other species of creature such as Doozers and Gorgs. He designed many of the creatures and settings which existed in this universe. He explains that he drew on two major parts of his background when creating the “look” of the show, the first his many years in working with Ted Geissels (Dr.Seuss) on several children’s books and the second being his growing up in Bermuda.