(RepublicanView.org) – Hollywood producer Marty Krofft has died at the age of 86. Krofft died from kidney failure at his home in Los Angeles on November 25, surrounded by family and friends.
The producer was seen as a trailblazer in Hollywood, particularly in children’s entertainment, and was involved in creating the popular series Pryor’s Place, starring Richard Pryor, in 1984. He formed Sid & Marty Pictures with his brother in the 1970s to develop Donny and Marie, featuring the Osmond siblings, The Bugaloos, and Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters.
The brothers started in show business as puppeteers and later produced DC Follies – a show that satirized political figures in Washington, DC, and turned them into puppets. The show ran from 1987 to 1989 and featured puppets of Ronald Reagan, the Pope, Richard Nixon, and the Royal couple Charles and Diana.
The World of Sid & Marty Krofft, an amusement park, opened in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1976 and is today the headquarters of news network CNN. Visitors to the park could explore a giant pinball machine, ride crystal unicorns, or watch an enormous Elton John puppet perform. This and other productions were considered so outlandish that many people said the brothers must have been using psychedelic drugs, something they denied – while confessing they could not say the same for many of their fans.
Born in Montreal in 1937, Krofft’s father was a clock salesman who moved the family from Canada to Rhode Island in the 1940s and then to New York City. Some reports suggested Marty and his brother were part of a long line of puppeteers, but they admitted in later life that this was untrue and served as mere publicity.
In 2018, the Kroffts won a Lifetime Achievement Emmy award, followed by TV Land and Saturn awards in later years.
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