RIP David Barrington Holt, Manager of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (1945 - 2024)

David Barrington Holt, longtime manager of the Jim Henson Company’s Creature Shop in L.A., died March 13 of complications from cancer.

Born in England in June 1945, Holt received his BA in industrial design with honors from London’s University of the Arts in 1963.

He built a reputation as a designer, photographer, modelmaker and restorer of mechanical antiquities over the next 20 years. His had numerous clients - both businesses and private individuals - in England and abroad, that included the London Science Museum, the Greater London Council, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers,

Holt began a 23-year collaboration with the Jim Henson Company, in 1986. First in the UK as Deputy Supervisor of the Creature Shop, before moving up to Creative Supervisor, then moving to Los Angeles in 1993 to establish Henson’s first West Coast Creature Shop to produce Dinosaurs.

He had creative oversight of shop operations, including puppetry, animatronics, effects for feature films, television, and commercials, performers; administrative matters, and R&D, with developments in the field of real-time 3D CG animation.

Henson Performance Control System used on "Earth to Ned"

Holt was essential in the creation of the Henson Performance Control System. His Henson credits include “George of the Jungle,” “The Phantom,” “Indian in the Cupboard,” “Dr. Dolittle,” “Jack Frost,” “Scooby-Doo,” “Snow Dogs,” “Stuart Little II,” “Cats and Dogs” and “The Country Bears”.

Following his decades with the Henson Company, he consulted for Walt Disney Imagineering R&D, where he assisted in the technical transfer of innovative animatronic characters into public exhibits.

He spent the remainder of his extensive and varied career working and consulting for companies, including the Chiodo Brothers, Including Media, 11:11 Creative, and Reisman Models.

David Barrington Holt was 78.