Louise Gold (born 1956) is an English puppeteer, actress and singer whose career has spanned more than five decades. She is known for puppetry on television and roles in musical theatre in the West End, as well as other television, film and voice roles.
Gold was raised in London, beginning training in the arts. She began to appear in musical theatre in the mid-1970s. She was a puppeteer and voice actress for The Muppet Show, for four seasons from 1977, and later for Sesame Street, and she has performed voice and puppet work on various other Muppet films, albums and television specials. She was a founder of, and lead puppeteer for, the satirical television show Spitting Image from 1984 to 1986 and occasionally thereafter.
Gold's appearances in musical theatre shows in the West End include Joe Papp's London production of The Pirates of Penzance in 1982. She has played such roles as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Kate in Kiss Me, Kate, Tanya in Mamma Mia!, Phyllis in Follies, Baroness Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Miss Andrew in Mary Poppins, Mrs Sowerberry and Mrs Bedwin in Oliver!, and Mazeppa in Gypsy. She was a regular performer in the Lost Musicals concert productions in London in the 1990s and performs in her own cabaret act.
Early life Gold was born in London, to parents who were active with Unity Theatre in London. Her father was John Gold (1920–1998),"In Memoriam", The Guardian, 2 December 1998 a journalist,Roper, David. Bart!: The Unauthorised Life & Times Ins and Outs Ups and Downs of Lionel Bart, p. 166, London, Pavilion, 1994 and her mother was an actress, Una Brandon-Jones (1916–2010).Morning Star, 11 January 2011, p. 2 Her brother, Max (born 1958), is also an actor. Gold trained at the Arts Educational Schools from age 11.Louise Gold website fact file
Early career, television and puppeteering Gold made her professional debut in 1973, while still in her last year of school, in the Christmas pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat, as Fairy Bowbells, at the Malvern Festival Theatre."Panto is bright and attractive", The Malvern Gazette, 27 December 1973 She played in the musical Hair on tour in Britain in 1974. In 1975–76, she played Rachel in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the York Theatre Royal and then on tour (as Rachel and Potiphar's Wife)."York", The Stage, 15 January 1976, p. 31
In 1977, Gold joined The Muppet Show, during the show's second season, where Jim Henson trained her as a puppeteer. She played several characters during her four seasons with the show, including Annie Sue Pig. She also sang on several of The Muppets' albumsSee, e.g., The Muppet Show 2 (1978), Arisa AB 4192 (US) and PYE NSPH 21 (UK) and was often paired vocally with Jerry Nelson. She was a puppeteer in the films The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Dark Crystal (1982), and she appeared in various other Muppet series and specials. Muppet chronicler Christopher Finch wrote that Gold was "the most versatile female puppeteer to work on The Muppet Show [and] the only British member of the cast."Finch (1993), p. 100 During these years, she continued to appear in musicals and plays in between her commitments to The Muppets. Among her non-puppeteering television appearances, Gold was featured as Mrs Tyler, a Goodwife, in the first series episode "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" of Blackadder (1983). The same year, she appeared as Maureen Bedford in episode two of For 4 Tonight, a talk-show spoof. In 1991, she played the domineering Private Elsa Bigstern in two episodes of 'Allo! 'Allo!.Shane, Emma. "Allo Allo", Qsulis.org, August 2006 (amended April 2007)
From 1984 to 1986, and occasionally thereafter, Gold was a lead puppeteer and voice on the satirical television show Spitting Image and was the lead singer (as Nancy Reagan) on their first single, "Da Do Run Ron", a pastiche of The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron", released in 1984.Shane, Emma. "Da Do Run Ron" page at Shane's Louise Gold website. The 45rpm single is on Elektra E9713. Gold was the first puppeteer hired for the show and "helped out with the Spitting Image pre-pilot, so she naturally became the 'consultant' for the hiring [and training] of the rest" of the puppeteers.Chester, p. 40 Peter Fluck, a creator of the show, commented, "Louise Gold always did the Queen and the mannerisms and facial expressions she put into it were wonderful. It was very exciting because this lump of clay we modelled with a fairly neutral expression came to life."Johnston, Ian. "Headcases? We were miles better", The Independent, 6 April 2008
Gold's later puppeteering work includes the title character, Fughetta Faffner, in The Ghost of Faffner Hall (1989), a Muppet music education TV Series."The Ghost of Faffner Hall" , Henson.com, retrieved 11 March 2013 She played several of the characters on Roland Rat The Series broadcasts in 1986 and 1988, Sesame Street in the early 1990s, on Mopatop's Shop in the early 2000s, and in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and Muppet Treasure Island (1996). In 1992, Gold played Sally Spook in The Spooks of Bottle Bay.Shane, Emma. "The Spooks Of Bottle Bay", Louise Gold website, retrieved 16 June 2009 In 1995 and 1997, she played characters on series 2 and series 3 of Jim Henson's Animal Show with Stinky and Jake, including Tizzy Bee, an early example of a computer generated image puppet.Shane, Emma. Jim Henson's The Animal Show with Stinky and Jake, Louise Gold website,
Gold lent her voice to an Australian puppet television programme in 2006, Five Minutes More. Gold was featured as a guest puppeteer, portraying the character of Babs (the female termite), on Transmission Impossible with Ed and Oucho on BBC 2 television. She appeared in seven episodes broadcast from May to August 2009.Shane, Emma. "Transmission: Impossible With Ed And Oucho", Louise Gold website, retrieved 12 January 2010 In 2013–2014, Gold starred in That Puppet Game Show, a celebrity game show on BBC One, operating three of the puppet characters.Episode Guide, That Puppet Game Show, BBC, retrieved 15 April 2014Shane, Emma. That Puppet Game Show, Louise Gold website, retrieved 15 April 2014 She reprised her role as Annie Sue Pig in the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted, also operating a Muppet kangaroo."Review: Muppets Most Wanted is a very good sequel", WoodTV, 21 March 2014"The Muppets ... Again Will Have Gold", Toughpigs.com, retrieved 28 February 2013; and Empire magazine, April 2013, p. 28 Also in 2014, she puppeteered on the CBeebies television series The Furchester Hotel, co-produced by Sesame Street. She plays Funella Furchester, the mother in a family of "cheerfully incompetent monsters" who own a hotel for monsters."Sesame Street Muppets Elmo and Cookie head to UK in new series from Sesame Workshop and CBeebies", BBC, 18 March 2014, retrieved 26 September 2014"Check in at The Furchester Hotel this September on CBeebies: Louise Gold is Funella", BBC, 12 September 2014 In the Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which premiered in 2019, she voices and is the puppeteer for Maudra Argot and is also the puppeteer for The All-Maudra, skekAyuk/The Gourmand and Onica.Moran, Sarah. "Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Cast & Character Guide", Screen Rant, 30 August 2019, retrieved 20 September 2019
Stage roles to 1995 From 1982, Gold began to appear in West End musicals. The first of these was as Isabel in the Joseph Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance (1982–83; playing the role of Edith in the 1983 film adaptation of the production).Theatre Record, 19 May 1982 to 2 June 1982, p. 278Shane, Emma. "The Pirates of Penzance", Louise Gold website, retrieved 13 April 2014 Her other stage roles in the 1980s included Divine Dixie Diva in Mrs Cole's Music Hall at the Mill at Sonning (1984–85); Katisha, Countess of Grantham, in MetroPolitan Mikado, adapted from The Mikado by Ned Sherrin and Alistair Beaton at Queen Elizabeth Hall (1985); Bev in Angry Housewives at the Lyric Hammersmith Studio (1986); Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers at Watermill Theatre (1986);Martin, Roy. "Pungent Humour from Russell", The Reading Evening Post, 16 August 1986 Maggot Scratcher in Sink the Belgrano! at Mermaid Theatre (1986);Theatre Record, 22 October to 4 November 1980, p. 1206 Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense at Fortune Theatre (1987; and singing on the original London cast album);Theatre Record, 12–25 March 1987, pp. 345–48 Fanny Brice and other comedians in Ziegfeld (1988) at the London Palladium (which held the record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, for "Greatest Theatrical Losses");See, e.g. Guinness Book of Records, 1998 edition, p. 152Rayment, Tim. "Touch of Steele puts a new spring in the old Ziegfeld routine", The Sunday Times, p. A-11, 22 May 1988; Theatre Record, 22 April to 8 May 1988, pp. 544–52 and 29 July to 11 August 1988, pp. 1029–33 and Dick Whittington in Poppy at Half Moon Theatre (1988–89).Shane, Emma. Listing of roles at the Louise Gold Website
Gold next starred as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes at Prince Edward Theatre (1990, replacing Elaine Paige; and on the 1995 studio cast album).Ruhlmann, William. All Music Guide review, retrieved 5 April 2009The album was released by Music Theatre Hour CDTEH6011 In the summer of 1991 at Open Air Regents Park she played Titania in A Midsummer Night's DreamTheatre Record, 21 May to 3 June 1991, pp. 646–49 and Adriana in The Boys from Syracuse (then toured as Adriana; "[W]hen the gleefully statuesque, not-so-pure Gold ripped into the splendid trio of "Sing for your Supper", we would have believed anything").Coveney, Michael. The Observer, 28 July 1991, reprinted in Theatre Record, 16 to 29 July 1991, pp. 869–72 Throughout the 1990s, Gold was a regular performer in the Lost Musicals concert productions, taking roles in fifteen of them and singing in associated BBC radio broadcasts. One of these was the British première of Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus at the Barbican Centre in 1992, in which Gold sang the title character, which she reprised in another Lost Musicals production at the Lindbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, in 2000. These productions included four Cole Porter musicals in which Gold starred in roles that had been written for Ethel Merman.Shane, Emma. Louise and Lost Musicals at the Louise Gold website
Gold was Gussie in Merrily We Roll Along at Haymarket Theatre, Leicester (1992; and on the 1993 cast album).Theatre Record, 8–21 April 1992, pp. 482–86. She next played Sara Jane Moore in Assassins at Donmar Warehouse (1992–93)Shuttleworth, Ian. Assassins review, City Limits magazine, retrieved 5 April 2009 and toured in Noël/Cole: Let's Do It, a Cole Porter and Noël Coward revue (1994 and 1995, beginning in Memphis, Tennessee; and on the cast album).Hewitt, Phil. "It's Party Time", Chichester Observer, 21 July 1994. She then played the title role in the stage musical adaptation of Calamity Jane at the Leicester Haymarket (1994–95).Gilbey, Liz. Review of Calamity Jane, 23 November 1994, p. 41; interview on 18 November 1994, p. 10, both in Leicester Mercury Gold appeared in Our Country's Good in 1995 as Lieutenant Will Dawes and Liz Morden, together with her brother Max Gold as Captain Arthur Phillip and John Wisehammer, at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre. Later that year, with the same cast, at the same theatre, the two performed in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, with Louise as Tractor Driver and Grusche, and Max as Soldier, Executioner, Blockhead, Lavrenti, Trooper, Blackmailer and Groom.Shane, Emma. Our Country's Good at the Louise Gold website, retrieved 20 January 2011
Stage roles since 1996