Lyle Conway

Lyle Conway (died 2026) was an American actor, puppeteer and designer, best known for his work with Jim Henson on The Dark Crystal and his work on Little Shop of Horrors through the creation of the Audrey II puppet.

Early life Lyle Conway was raised in Chicago's Southwest side. He gained interest in the world of fantasy creatures as a child through the TV show Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, and the film King Kong. Conway created his first puppets as a child using household materials to replicate these characters. When Conway was older he attended art school where he won several awards from the Art Institute of Chicago before moving on to Hollywood.

Career Conway worked as a social worker for four years and then went on to design for a leading toy company. He then began his work in Hollywood with Gene Warren and David Allen. Conway worked under Jim Henson in the Creature Shop where he began his work sculpting Miss Piggy for the fifth season of The Muppet Show and The Great Muppet Caper. He also was the creator behind Lyle the Dog, and the character was named after him.

This allowed him to work on the film The Dark Crystal. On Dark Crystal, Conway was the design and fabrication supervisor of creature development. He worked specifically on Skeksis, Urskeks, and Aughra where he developed cable and radio control mechanisms through the creation of their animatronic characters. Conway built and designed the Aughra puppet used in the film. Conway also provided the voice of the Urskeks.

He led the design team on Disney and Walter Murch's film Return to Oz. There he created characters including Jack Pumpkinhead, Billina, and Gump. Conway not only created Gump but voiced the character as well. The character Jack Pumpkinhead was voiced by Brian Henson through Conway's casting.

Conway returned to the Jim Henson Creature Shop to work on the film Dreamchild where he oversaw the shop for the film. Conway described it as, "one-fourth the work of The Dark Crystal at ten times the speed", In the designing process, Conway and Frank Oz had conflicting ideas on what Audrey II should look like. Oz wanted to make Audrey II look soft and Conway wanted to make it look horrific so they had to compromise and ended up creating the Audrey II used in the film. but after personnel changes, Tony Gardner took over.

Conway was the associate producer on the film Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie. At the 98th Academy Awards, his name was mentioned in the In Memoriam section.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations