Lyle Conway

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Lyle Conway
Born
Chicago, Illinois
Occupation(s)Puppeteer, Actor, Producer, Designer, Fabrication Supervisor
Employer(s)Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Disney, Rob Bottin

Lyle Conway is an actor, puppeteer, and designer, best known for his work with Jim Henson on The Dark Crystal (1982) and his work on Little Shop of Horrors through the creation of the Audrey II puppet.

Early life[edit]

Lyle Conway was raised in Chicago's Southwest side. He gained interest in the world of fantasy creatures as a child through the TV show Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, and the film King Kong. Conway created his first puppets as a child using household materials to replicate these characters. When Conway was older he attended art school where he won several awards from the Art Institute of Chicago before moving on to Hollywood.[1]

Career[edit]

Conway worked as a social worker for four years and then went on to design for a leading toy company. He then began his work in Hollywood with Gene Warren and David Allen. Conway worked under Jim Henson in the Creature Shop where he began his work sculpting Miss Piggy for the fifth season of The Muppet Show and The Great Muppet Caper.[1]

On The Muppet Show Conway worked mainly as a Muppet designer. He worked as a sculptor for characters like Miss Piggy and the Dodo.[2] He also was the creator behind Lyle the Dog, and the character was named after him.

This allowed him to work on the film The Dark Crystal. On Dark Crystal, Conway was the design and fabrication supervisor of creature development[3] He worked specifically on Skeksis, Urskeks, and Aughra where he developed cable and radio control mechanisms through the creation of their animatronic characters. Conway built and designed the Aughra puppet used in the film.[4] Conway also provided the voice of the Urskeks.[5]

Conway led the design team on Disney and Walter Murch's film Return to Oz.[6] There he created characters including Jack Pumpkinhead, Billina, and Gump. Conway not only created Gump but voiced the character as well. The character Jack Pumpkinhead was voiced by Brian Henson through Conway's casting.[7]

Conway returned to the Jim Henson Creature Shop to work on the film Dreamchild where he oversaw the shop for the film.[3] Through his experience, he and his team were able to efficiently create several creatures with a minimal budget.[8] Conway described it as, "one-fourth the work of The Dark Crystal at ten times the speed",[8] where they created six creatures in fourteen weeks.

Conway worked on the film Link where he was a creature effects supervisor as well as a consultant on the film.[5][9]

Conway created the animatronics used in the TV movie Red Crow and the Ghost Ship. One of the animatronics that Conway worked on was the Red Crow.[5]

Conway worked on the TV movie The Murders in the Rue Morgue as a puppet designer and creator. Here he created the ape used in the film.[5]

Conway worked under Frank Oz on Little Shop of Horrors where they created and designed the Audrey II puppet. When Conway was designing the puppet he looked towards flower shops and botanical gardens to look for inspiration. Conway wanted Audrey II to be a cross between a cactus and Ukrainian eggs. He wanted to make Audrey II into something precious that Seymour would take home with him.[10] In the designing process, Conway and Frank Oz had conflicting ideas on what Audrey II should look like. Oz wanted to make Audrey II look soft and Conway wanted to make it look horrific so they had to compromise and ended up creating the Audrey II used in the film.[10] Conway began creating Audrey II through the creation of working prototypes that they named the "Feed Me" Plant. This prototype was created for three months before being rebuilt.[7] Conway used cables, radio controls, and hydraulic pumps to achieve the movement seen in the film[10] and foam rubber and cables to create the puppet.[7] Both Conway and Oz recorded the footage of Audrey II's movement so it could be reviewed. Through this revision, Conway sped through the footage and realized that Audrey II's movement looked better sped up. Because of this Conway pitched the idea of having the actors act in slow motion and to speed it up in the final cut to make the puppet more fluid. The actors agreed to this and the scenes where the actors are in the same frame as Audrey II were performed in slow motion.[7] Through his work on the Audrey II puppet, Conway was nominated for three awards, an Academy Award, a Saturn Award, and a BAFTA film award, for the special effects used.[5]

Conway worked on The Blob where he focused on the special effects and was one of the designers. Conway was originally in charge of the film's effects[11] but after personnel changes, Tony Gardner took over.[12]

Conway was the associate producer on the film Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie.[5]

On the 1998 film Deep Rising, Conway was hired by Rob Bottin's studio. He worked as a painter on the film's crew.[5]

In the 1998 film Blade, Conway makes an appearance as the character Reichardt.[5]

Conway worked for Jim Henson's creature shop on the 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are. For this film, he sculpted the models of the monsters.[3]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year Film Designer Producer Puppeteer Actor Role Notes[5]
1979 The Day Time Ended Yes No No No Stop-motion Figures Designer and Creator
1981 The Great Muppet Caper Yes No No No Muppet Builder & Designer
1982 The Dark Crystal Yes No No Yes Urskes Creature Design and Fabrication Supervisor
1985 Return to Oz Yes No Yes Yes The Gump (voice) Muppet Builder & designer
Dreamchild Yes No Yes No Creature Effects Supervisor
1986 Link Yes No No No Creature Effects Supervisor, Consultant[9]
Little Shop of Horrors Yes No No No Designer and Creator of "Audrey II"
1988 The Blob Yes No No No "Blob" Creature Effects Designer and Creator
1995 Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie No Yes No No Associate Producer
1998 Deep Rising Yes No No No Painter
Blade No No No Yes Reichardt Actor
2009 Where the Wild Things Are Yes No No No Sculptor

Television[edit]

Year Film Designer Puppeteer Notes[5]
1980 The Muppet Show Yes No Muppet Designer
1986 Red Crow and the Ghost Ship Yes Yes Worked on Animatronics
The Murders in the Rue Morgue Yes No Puppet Designer and Creator[9]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year Award Category Nominated Work Result[5]
1987 Academy Award Best Effects, Visual Effects Little Shop of Horrors Nominated
1987 Saturn Award Best Special Effects Nominated
1988 BAFTA Film Award Best Special Effects Nominated

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Koch, Phil (Sep 1987). "The Man Behind the Plant". Cinefantastique. 17 (5): 27.
  2. ^ Finch, Christopher (1981). Of Muppets and Men: The Making of the Muppet Show. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780394520858.
  3. ^ a b c "Lyle Conway – The Dark Crystal". www.darkcrystal.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  4. ^ "The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited at The Henry Ford". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Lyle Conway | Special Effects, Additional Crew, Actor". IMDb. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  6. ^ "2/–/1984 – 'Brian H. to London to work on OZ.' | Jim Henson's Red Book". www.henson.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  7. ^ a b c d "MVPs of Horror: The 'Little Shop of Horrors' Puppet Master Who Brought the Blood-Thirsty Plant to Life". Yahoo Entertainment. 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  8. ^ a b "7/16/1984 – 'Dreamchild begins shooting.' | Jim Henson's Red Book". www.henson.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  9. ^ a b c "Lyle Conway". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  10. ^ a b c Mathews, Jack (1987-01-05). "'LITTLE SHOP'S' MEAN GREEN MOTHER". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  11. ^ Warren, Bill (September 1988). "To Build a Better Blob". Fangoria (77): 48–51.
  12. ^ Timpone, Anthony. "Men, makeup, and monsters." Macmillan, 1996, p. 187. ISBN 0-312-14678-7
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