Who Is Steve Whitmire? Muppets Studio Fired Voice Of Kermit The Frog For 'Unacceptable Conduct'

The long-standing voice of Kermit the Frog, Steve Whitmire, was fired for "repeated unacceptable business conduct over a period of many years," the Muppets Studio, a division of the Walt Disney Co., said in a statement Monday.

Whitmire provided the iconic voice for Kermit for 27 years until it was revealed last week that he was being replaced by Matt Vogel. The puppeteer and voice artist in an interview with Hollywood Reporter on Monday said he was fired by Disney in October last year and was given two reasons — for being too outspoken about the direction of his character in recent years, especially during ABC’s Muppets reboot in 2015 and for being engaged in a union-related dispute, both of which— he revealed—angered the Disney top brass.

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However, the reasons for his departure given by Disney varies from Muppets studio.

The latter in their statement said: "We raised concerns about Steve’s repeated unacceptable business conduct over a period of many years and he consistently failed to address the feedback. The decision to part ways was a difficult one which was made in consultation with the (Jim) Henson family and has their full support.”

The statement by Muppets Studio came after Whitmire said in the interview to Hollywood Reporter: “I am still trying to make sense of how those two issues were egregious enough to justify ending a 39-year career without at least giving me an ultimatum at the time the issue occurred when I would have had a chance to correct my course.”

Whitmire took over the role of the beloved Muppet frog after creator Jim Henson died in 1990. He was personally picked by Henson's family to take over as Kermit, and was also given the voice of Ernie from Sesame Street. Whitmire worked with puppets after graduating from high school, and eventually got a job working on The Muppet Show in 1978. Since then, Whitmire has performed in almost every major Henson Company project. As part of the Muppet cast, he has appeared in multiple feature films and television series, performing a variety of characters on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock.

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After he was fired, Whitmire in multiple posts on his blog said the Muppets for him were not just “a job, or a career, or even a passion” but were “a calling, an urgent, undeniable, impossible to resist way of life."

“This is my life’s work since I was 19 years old. I feel that I am at the top of my game, and I want all of you who love the Muppets to know that I would never consider abandoning Kermit or any of the others because to do so would be to forsake the assignment entrusted to me by Jim Henson, my friend and mentor, but even more, my hero," he wrote, He adding he was devastated to have failed in his duty to his hero.