The Wizard

The Wizard is the ruler of the Emerald City and Oz, as seen in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Actually a former tour bus driver named Francis Cornfine from Hollywood, CA. The Wizard came to Oz and the residents assumed he was an all-powerful figure. Cornfine's talent at manipulating his fingers impressed the populace, and feeling a need to "give the public what they want," he developed a number of devices and tricks to maintain the illusion of "Oz, the great and powerful."

The Many Faces of the Wizard
Through a complex system of special effects, the Wizard is able to appear to supplicants as an enormous, mythical being of some kind. His forms vary according to the person seeing him, and serve as a front for his more mundane appearance. He appeared as a dragon to The Cowardly Lion, a fire-like entity with a face to The Scarecrow, a sexy woman that transforms into a chicken to the Tin Thing, and a big, green monster-like head to Dorothy and Toto.

Jeffrey Tambor also voiced the Dragon Form, Fire form, and Monster Head Form while the Woman Form was voiced by Julianne Buescher.

Other Portrayals

 * In "The Wizard of Foz," a comic from Muppet Magazine issue 4, the role was played by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. One of the faces of the Wizard in the comic was Fozzie Bear.