Toby Philpott facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Toby Philpott
Born	(1946-02-14) 14 February 1946 (age 79) London, England
Occupation	Clown, juggler, library technician, puppeteer, teacher, street performer
Known for	The Dark Crystal, Return of the Jedi, The Company of Wolves, Labyrinth, Little Shop of Horrors, Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Toby Philpott (born February 14, 1946) is an English puppeteer. He is famous for his work with special movie puppets called animatronics in the 1980s. You might know his work from films like The Dark Crystal and Return of the Jedi.

Toby came from a family of performers. In the 1960s, he left school and traveled the world. He earned money by being a street performer. He would juggle, eat fire, do magic shows, and perform as a clown and acrobat. His movie career began when Jim Henson chose him to work on the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal. Toby worked closely with Jim Henson on this project.

The next year, Toby was asked to help control Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi. He controlled Jabba's left arm, head, tongue, and body. Toby also used his puppetry skills in other movies. These included The Company of Wolves (1984), Labyrinth (1986), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). After these films, he left the movie business. Toby describes his movie career as a time when a "street juggler got lucky."

Toby Philpott's Life Story

Growing Up and Early Adventures

Toby Philpott as a child

Toby Philpott was born in London, England, on February 14, 1946. His family was full of performers and teachers. His father, A. R. Philpott, was a well-known puppeteer. He later became a writer and teacher about puppets. Toby's mother, Sheila Moriarty, was a singer and actress. She taught voice lessons and Shakespearean acting.

From a young age, Toby loved performing arts, especially magic. He also became interested in puppetry. He read a diary his father kept about using puppets during the 1930s. Even though he loved performing, his parents did not want him to work in show business.

In the 1960s, Toby joined the youth movement that was popular at the time. He had a free-spirited attitude about money. Toby left school and started traveling the world. He lived a "traveling artist" lifestyle. By his late teens, he worked part-time at archaeological sites and odd jobs at fairgrounds. He even worked an octopus ride at a fair in Yorkshire. By 1967, when he was 21, he often stayed at friends' homes in Notting Hill Gate. He earned money by juggling on the streets.

Finding His Passion for Performing

In the late 1960s, Toby worked at nightclubs in Soho. He met many musicians and performers there. He said these were some of his "most treasured memories." He also kept working on archaeological digs sometimes. In 1968, he worked at Sandal Castle in Wakefield.

In 1970, he lived in Paris, France. He sold jewelry on the streets and lived in an art studio. He spent two years traveling in the United States and Mexico.

Toby returned to London in 1972. He attended a show at the famous Roundhouse arts center. This show made him excited about performing again. Toby tried to join the Le Grand Magic Circus in Paris. He performed in one show but was not hired full-time. He went back to the United Kingdom, determined to perform for a living. While juggling outside London's Oval House Theatre, he was discovered by John and Crissie Trigger. They ran a traveling entertainment company called The Raree Show.

Life as a Traveling Street Performer

Toby Philpott in 1968, during a mining job at Sandal Castle in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

For the next few years, Toby traveled and performed with The Raree Show and by himself. He visited places like Liverpool, Sweden, Germany, Mexico, and the United States. His acts included juggling, magic, fire eating, acrobatics, unicycling, and clowning. He performed in schools, theatres, Medieval festivals, and street markets. He also led theatre workshops for children. He learned to play different musical instruments and apply stage make-up.

In the mid-1970s, Toby lived in London. He continued traveling across Europe as a street performer. He used props he made himself and invented his own tricks. He performed in opening acts at places like the Royal Opera House in London. Toby also performed with different fringe theatre groups. He learned stage management and other "techie stuff" at the Melkweg cultural center in Amsterdam. Toby said he especially enjoyed seeing "how things were done."

Beginning His Animatronics Career

After his father passed away in 1978, Toby wanted to work more with others. His first movie experience was in the 1981 film, Quest for Fire. He and other students from a mime class were chosen to play early humans. He was later removed from the film when the project changed. But this experience showed Toby that he could work in movies.

That year, his mime teacher told him about an audition for The Dark Crystal. This was a 1982 fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. The Dark Crystal used amazing animatronics. These were puppets that used electronics and robotics to look alive. The audition asked for different types of performers. This was because no one knew exactly what skills would be needed for this new art form.

Toby saw the film as a chance to use his performing skills in a "new and exciting field." He felt he could learn something even if he didn't get the job. He was chosen from about 200 people. Toby went through several workshops. The group of finalists was narrowed down to 20, then to 10. Toby said the final workshops were very competitive. He was one of the 10 chosen to work on the film. Jim Henson, who Toby called "the nicest millionaire I ever met," was very involved in choosing the team.

Working on The Dark Crystal

Toby Philpott juggling.

Work on The Dark Crystal happened at Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London. Toby Philpott began training in puppeteering. He worked with early versions of the puppet characters. Each main puppet performer was given a team to work the eyes, eyebrows, and arms of specific puppets. Jim Henson chose Toby and Robbie Barnett to be in his support team. Toby often controlled the right arm of the characters Jim Henson operated.

Filming took place at Elstree Studios. Toby and his team often had quick run-throughs before filming. The teams worked together to make the puppets move and act like real characters. This involved a lot of trying new things and getting feedback. Toby said that if he made a mistake, Jim Henson was always patient and kind.

Toby's main character in The Dark Crystal was urTih the Alchemist. Toby said this was his favorite character to puppet. He also played other creatures in the film, like the Garthim and Pod People. Toby said the puppet designs themselves gave the creatures a lot of personality. This helped him prepare for the roles. He felt a sense of calm when wearing the tall Mystic suits. The suits for the large Garthims made Toby and the other actors feel "ready to go." The puppeteers relied on honest feedback from each other and the filmmakers. It was hard to know how they looked while inside the suits.

Toby's most disappointing moment was on the first day of filming. He played a mystic in a scene. The costume's jaw was stuck open, but no one told him. He was unhappy with how it looked in the movie. Still, Toby said the team was "very happy and engaged." Because the techniques were so new, he had a lot of hands-on involvement. He said this was not matched in his later movies.

Controlling Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi

While working on The Dark Crystal, rumors spread that alien characters for Return of the Jedi were being made at the same studio. Many puppeteers wanted to work on that film. David Barclay, who built puppets for The Dark Crystal, was chosen to operate the huge Jabba the Hutt puppet. He asked for Toby Philpott to be hired as his partner. Toby was surprised by the job offer and happily accepted.

David Barclay was the main Jabba puppeteer. He planned all the movements. Toby controlled Jabba's left arm. He used it for many of Jabba's active movements, like eating frogs and smoking. Toby also used his right hand to control Jabba's tongue and head. He controlled the body by swiveling his seat. Cables allowed him to move the head and make Jabba snarl.

A blueprint of the Jabba the Hutt puppet from Return of the Jedi.

The rest of the puppet team included David Barclay on the right arm and mouth. Mike Edmonds controlled the tail. John Coppinger controlled the eyes with a remote. Toby said sitting inside the Jabba puppet with David was like being in a "two-man submarine." It was very hot, small, and uncomfortable. A monitor inside showed a general view of Jabba. The team relied on each other's feedback to make the puppet move as one creature.

Toby and David would go inside the puppet early each day. They stayed there for almost the entire nine-and-a-half hours of filming. Other cast and crew members often didn't know who they were during breaks. They preferred to stay in character inside the suit. They took direction from the director, Richard Marquand, as if Jabba was a real actor. They even talked back to him as if the puppet itself was a live performer.

It took about three weeks to film the Jabba's Palace scenes. Another week was spent on the Sail Barge scenes. Toby said they had few problems operating Jabba. This was thanks to the great design work by Phil Tippett, Stuart Freeborn, and John Coppinger. Toby's experience on The Dark Crystal helped him prepare for Jabba. He said the experience was "great fun." He enjoyed being the center of attention among the many puppets and actors in Jabba's Palace.

During the scene where Princess Leia is brought to Jabba, the director asked Toby to try to make Jabba lick Carrie Fisher's face. Toby was hesitant because the tongue was hard to control. But the director convinced him. During the attempt, Toby accidentally poked the tongue into Fisher's ear. This caused a stir on set.

The short scene where Jabba eats frogs took several tries. It was hard for Toby to reach Jabba's mouth with the left arm. The filmmakers first tried to use a real frog, but it kept escaping. The last scene Toby filmed was Jabba's death. He and the other puppeteers "trashed around and went crazy." Toby said once Carrie Fisher realized she couldn't hurt the performers inside Jabba, "she really went for it." Toby described actor Harrison Ford as "funny." He said actress Carrie Fisher was playful on set. Actor Mark Hamill was "a bit insecure." Toby finished his work on the film in 1983.

Adventures in Labyrinth

Toby Philpott was president of the International Jugglers' Association from 1982 to 1983. He also did animatronic work for the 1984 film, The Company of Wolves. By 1985, Toby needed money. He called The Jim Henson Company to ask about work. He had missed the audition for Jim Henson's new movie, Labyrinth. But Toby was immediately called in for a job.

Toby Philpott juggling.

Toby operated several characters in Labyrinth. He controlled a goblin puppet that sat near the throne of Jareth the Goblin King, played by David Bowie. He also played one of the Fireys. These were wild goblins with body parts that could come apart. Toby, credited as "Firey No. 1," controlled the body parts with Kevin Clash and David Barclay. He also controlled the eyes of the Junk Lady character. Toby was one of the many hands that made up the Helping Hands. These were hand-shaped goblins that came out of walls. They worked together to create talking faces.

Toby said his favorite memory from Labyrinth was taking his six-year-old son, Keili, on a tour of the Goblin Village set. Toby did not enjoy working on Labyrinth much. He had a back injury from playing soccer before he got the job. The strain of puppeteering caused him a lot of pain. He tried different ways to heal his back, but they didn't work. His back problem was solved when a friend suggested a clinic in London. The therapy worked so well that Toby could walk up a mountain in Spain after filming. He went there to organize a juggling convention.

Working on Little Shop of Horrors

Toby Philpott was asked to work on the 1986 Frank Oz film Little Shop of Horrors. He was part of a team that operated the animatronic plant. This plant in the movie fed on human blood. The plant's limbs were moved by special controls. Toby controlled the plant's right-hand leaf. He said this was "quite heavy work." Toby also helped operate the plant's lips. The plant grew bigger throughout the movie. For its largest size, Toby controlled one of its tentacles. However, that part of the movie was cut from the final version. Audiences didn't like the original ending where the plant ate all the main characters. Filmmakers created a new, happier ending. Toby was out of town and couldn't work on the new scenes.

Leaving the Film Industry

Toby Philpott auditioned for a part in Return to Oz, a 1985 movie. He was almost chosen for the film. But for reasons he didn't know, he didn't get the job. Toby's film career mostly ended in the late 1980s. He said this was because of changes in the film industry. Animatronics were becoming less common. Also, the Prime Minister's decision not to give tax breaks to films meant fewer foreign movies were made in the United Kingdom. He also felt that after Jim Henson passed away in 1990, a younger team took over. This meant Toby and other long-time puppeteers were no longer as connected.

Toby went through a challenging time in his life. He was working at a circus school and holding juggling workshops. There, he met people who started their own traveling circus company in 1986, called the Nofit State Circus. Toby left the school to travel with NoFit. At first, he helped set up and take down the big circus tent. He found that this alone drew crowds. He eventually became a stage manager and performed with the circus. He traveled with them for several summer tours across the United Kingdom until the mid-1990s.

A Brief Return for Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Toby Philpott (back, middle) with the other Who Framed Roger Rabbit puppeteers, including Star Wars alums David Barclay (front, middle) and Mike Quinn (front, right).

Toby Philpott made a short return to movies for the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This comedy combined live actors with animation. David Barclay was asked to put together a team of puppeteers for the movie. He contacted Toby, who was living in Spain at the time. Toby joined as one of six puppeteers. They were a "troubleshooting team" who handled simple puppet tasks. These were things the special effects crew couldn't or didn't want to do. The other puppeteers included David Barclay, Ian Tregonning, Christopher Leith, Geoff Felix, and Mike Quinn. Mike Quinn had worked on Return of the Jedi too.

Toby and the puppet crew used strings to move objects handled by the cartoon characters. For example, they moved items handled by an octopus bartender. They also moved the gun aimed at actor Bob Hoskins by one of the weasel characters. Other tasks were as simple as making boxes wobble. In a scene where Roger Rabbit flushes himself down a toilet, Toby spent an afternoon under the fake toilet. He used an invisible string to pull the flusher and spun around to make water come up. David Barclay said the experience was fun. But he felt the computer-effects team didn't take the puppeteers seriously. He sensed that his type of animatronic art was fading. Toby did appear as a juggler in the background of the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy.

Later Life and Legacy

Toby Philpott and John Coppinger, Jabba the Hutt sculptor.

In August 1997, Toby Philpott took part in a public arts performance. He played a man who believed he had been contacted by UFOs. He was in a room full of maps and cardboard spaceships. This performance was completely made up on the spot.

In December 1997, after more than 30 years of working for himself, Toby Philpott took a job at Cardiff Central Library. He became a library technician. He helps with computers and technology there. Toby said this was a smart move for him at that point in his life. He realized it was important to have a steady job. He joked that "Finding Jabba the Hutt working in a library is no more unusual than the rest of my life."

Toby is still a member of the board for the NoFit State Circus. He is also a long-time student at the Maybe Logic Academy. This is an online study group. Toby is still well known for his animatronics work, especially on Return of the Jedi. He sometimes attends science fiction conventions to meet fans and sign autographs. He went to Celebration Europe in 2007. Toby said he didn't know how big the Star Wars fanbase was until he started using the Internet in 1999. Years later, Toby Philpott described his movie career as "a street juggler that got lucky." He has thought about writing a book about his life. In November 2007, Toby wrote a 50,000-word novel in one month. The book, Foolproof, is about young people traveling in modern Spain.

Jabba the Hutt sculptor John Coppinger with Jabba puppeteers Mike Edmonds, David Barclay and Toby Philpott at a Star Wars fan convention.

After the 1997 Star Wars Special Edition was released, Toby said he didn't like the new animated Jabba the Hutt in a scene that was added back in. He was interested in what computer-generated imagery (CGI) could do. But he was sad about how much CGI was used instead of animatronics and real performers. Toby didn't dislike CGI completely, especially when it looked real, like in Steven Spielberg's 1994 film, Jurassic Park. However, he felt puppetry and animatronics often looked more real than some computer effects. He also felt puppeteers could improvise and interact with actors in a way CGI couldn't. Toby later said that the animated Jabbas in the 2004 DVD of Return of the Jedi and the 1999 movie The Phantom Menace were much better than the special edition version.

Toby Philpott lives with his long-time girlfriend, the artist Julie Shackson. He has a son named Keili and a daughter named Yo. His daughter has a granddaughter named Matilda. Toby's favorite band is The Grateful Dead. His favorite books include The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Catch-22, and The Sirens of Titan. His favorite writers are Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Anton Wilson.

Toby Philpott's Movie Work