I have some very sad news to share…Nikki Tilroe has passed away. This is from Crabgrass Puppet Theatre:

“Nikki Tilroe died last night. She had been ill for a number of months, and was facing a liver transplant and possibly a kidney transplant as well. Almost two weeks ago, she decided to terminate medical intervention, left the hospital, and went home. She said that her body was dying, and it was time to go on to the next adventure. Her final days at home were filled with visits and calls from friends and many, many puppeteers. When we saw her a little over a week ago, she was radiant, calm, very certain that this was the right thing to do, and very happy. She was, as always, beautiful, inspiring, and a lot of fun. We will miss her greatly.”

Although she had lived and worked primarily in the United States for many years, Nikki was an important member of the Canadian puppetry community in the `70s and early `80s when she was based in Toronto and ran Frog Print Theatre.

Nikki performed on many well known television series over four decades, including the popular 1970s Canadian children’s series The Waterville Gang (it still airs in various markets around the world today), Today’s Special, Fraggle Rock, and The Charlie Horse Music Pizza. She also performed Snuggles the Fabric Softener Bear with Kermit Love in a long running series of commercials for Unilever and contributed to Puppets and Television, one of the earliest books on video puppetry techniques.

She will be sadly missed by the entire puppetry community.