Old Tom

PERFORMER	Jerry Nelson
DEBUT	1996
DESIGN	Ronald Binion builder

Old Tom is a pirate in Muppet Treasure Island. He has a long, uncut beard and wears glasses. He has a background role, but is seen hugging Angel Marie when the pirates discover Flint's treasure. He is defeated when Sweetums throws a log at him.

Old Tom also played a member of the Flying Monkeys motorcycle gang in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, in which he was performed by Allan Trautman. He later appeared in a Haunted Holidays interstitial on Disney.com (played by Steve Whitmire), "Bohemian Rhapsody", Muppets Most Wanted (on the wall of Gulag 38B), The Muppets episode "Because... Love‎‎", The Muppets Take the Bowl, and The Muppets Take the O2.

Notes

• The Old Tom puppet was originally built with a wooden leg, which was really hand-carved and painted foam to look like the real thing. An early draft of the script makes reference to one of the pirates whittling at his peg leg out of boredom just before "Cabin Fever," and in the final version Old Tom is witnessed doing such. The prop leg went up for sale in 2025 by Julien's Auctions, with a note about what the leg is made of and that it had adhesive and foam residue from where it used to be attached to Old Tom.

Detail of the residue on the wooden leg's base.

Page from an early draft of Muppet Treasure Island referencing a pirate's self-inflicted whittling. Note that Gobo and Red from Fraggle Rock were initially pitched to also appear during "Cabin Fever."

See also

• Real Old Tom
• Dead Tom