PERFORMER | Jim Henson puppeteer |
Phyllis Marshall voice | |
DEBUT | 1972 |
DESIGN | Jim Henson, Michael Frith designers |
Caroly Wilcox builder |
Catgut is the blues-singing, trumpet-playing cat from The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. Formerly owned by Caleb Siles, Catgut was thrown out for befriending the rats. After laying down in a graveyard to die in melodramatic fashion, she was found by Leroy, Rover Joe, and T.R., who asked her to join them. Catgut possesses a husky singing voice, reminiscent of Carol Channing's. She is the only one of the four-legged animals in the group to walk on her hind legs, leading the little band on her trumpet.
Catgut later appeared as a background player in several episodes of The Muppet Show, as well as The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence and The Muppet Movie. In episode 405, Catgut does a walk-on during the "Rock Around the Clock" number, startling the rats who are singing it. True to character, she merely yawns and walks off, leaving the rats to finish the song. In a North Pole-themed number in episode 501, "Jambalaya", Catgut fishes through the ice and catches a crocodile.
In later years, she made cameo appearances alongside her Muppet Musicians bandmates in the first issue of Muppet King Arthur and The Muppet Christmas Carol: The Illustrated Holiday Classic. She also has a prominent solo appearance in "The Eagle, the Mouse, and the Wedge of Cheese", a short story in the anthology Muppets Meet the Classics: Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. A rendition of "The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage", Catgut fills the role of the dog who "arrests" Francois Fromage, occupying the role of the ill-fated sausage from the original folk tale.
Catgut is one of the puppets on display at the Center for Puppetry Arts's permanent World of Puppetry exhibition.
Filmography[]
- The Muppet Musicians of Bremen
- One to One
- The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence
- The Muppet Show
- Episode 103: Joel Grey ("Willkommen")
- Episode 106: Jim Nabors ("Thank God I'm a Country Boy")
- Episode 116: Avery Schreiber ("May You Always," performed by Richard Hunt)
- Episode 121: Twiggy
- Episode 201: Don Knotts
- Episode 208: Steve Martin
- Episode 211: Dom DeLuise
- Episode 214: Elton John
- Episode 303: Roy Clark
- Episode 405: Victor Borge ("Rock Around the Clock," performed by Richard Hunt)
- Episode 406: Linda Lavin ("Beyond the Blue Horizon")
- Episode 501: Gene Kelly ("Jambalaya")
- Episode 510: Jean-Pierre Rampal ("Veterinarian's Hospital")
- The Muppet Movie ("Rainbow Connection" finale)
- Wow, You're a Cartoonist! (performed by Kevin Clash)