Remembering Jerry Nelson. Thoughts from Siblings Marty and Janice Nelson

In Memory of Jerry Nelson
July 10, 1934 - August 23, 2012

It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since Jerry's passing. We all miss him so much and think of him often here at MuppetsHenson.

All Muppet Fans around the World will be thinking of Jerry today.

Jerry has left us with so many wonderful pieces of work. We will forever enjoy watching his past performances and can't wait for a new generation of fans to discover his talents. As you will read from Brother Marty and Sister Janice, Jerry was a wonderful family man away from the Muppet Universe and was truly loved by all. He is deeply missed.

I invite you to look up and watch and/or listen to some of Jerry's works today!

We ALL miss you Jerry ♥

Jerry's Brother and Sister Marty & Janice Nelson
(LOVE the tattoo, Janice!)

Special thanks to Jerry's Brother, Marty Nelson, and Sister, Janice Nelson, for sending MuppetsHenson a few thoughts on Jerry today.

Our thoughts are with you both of you and also Jan, Jerry's wonderful, caring wife.

From Marty Nelson,
Jerry's Brother

On behalf of Jerry’s family we would like to thank everyone for the amazing outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past year.

We knew that Jerry was a wonderful husband, brother, father, uncle, grandfather, cousin, friend….. We knew that Jerry was a superbly talented puppeteer, musician, and artist. We knew that Jerry was famous and had touched a lot of lives. But we were all humbled by the depth of emotion we experienced through the hundreds of phone calls, texts, emails, and the reports on TV and the internet at the time of his death and over the last 12 months.

Jerry’s death, of course, hit us all very hard. It’s been a long, difficult year without him. We are going to be OK, though, because we have each other. We can of course see the wonder of his amazing performances as Count Von Count, Floyd, Robin, Dr. Strangepork and hundreds of other characters anytime that we want. But his true, real legacy is the love he had for all of us, and the love we have for him in return.


More thoughts from Marty:

My sister was born 18 years after Jerry, and I was born 24 years after him. So he really was our big brother. Arguably the coolest big brother there ever was on the planet. So cool that when my sister was little she wanted to marry him and was very angry when someone beat her to it. Janice told us a story this week of how when she was little, Jerry came home with a beard for the first time. Janice immediately told our mother on him. Jerry shaved the beard off right away, just for her. That’s the kind of big brother that he was. I remember when that he would come to Virginia it was like royalty had arrived. Really hip royalty. And though I didn’t want to marry him, I did wish my name was Jerry, many times. We really looked up to him. How could we not?



From Janice Nelson,
Jerry's Sister


Jerry was out of the house before I even knew I had a brother...there was an 18 yr difference in our ages. He was in the military and stationed in Japan. Our mom had put a framed photo of him in my room and I remember as a little girl sleeping with this photo under my pillow. What my brother Marty said at the memorial hit the nail on the head...when Jerry came to visit it was like royalty visiting. He had a pair of marianettes ...a clown and a cop and would entertain me with them...I guess I was one of his 1st puppeteering gigs! I remember walking down to the local grocery where we lived in Fairfax Va with him where he bought me licorice and then walked back with me on his shoulders yodeling. He was my brother, friend, parent and confidant. His star will always shine in my sky and I will miss him forever. He was always there to help words of wisdom and encouragement, Marty, Jerry and I were very close siblings dispite the difference in our ages.

Thank you for caring!

Janice Nelson

P.S. Didn't know if you were all aware that the bass player, Janice, in Dr. Teeth's Electric Mayhem, was created by Jerry and named after me.

Recorded at the special Jerry Nelson Tribute at The Museum Of The Moving Image in Astoria, NY, this highlight reel puts a spotlight on the just some of the multitude of characters that were brought to life by Jerry Nelson in his legendary career with The Muppets. Compiled by, and featuring an introduction from Stephanie D'Abruzzo. Enjoy just a sampling of Jerry's works.