Sid Krofft, ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ ‘Land of the Lost’ Co-Creator, Dead at 96

Sid Krofft, who, alongside his late brother Marty Krofft, created popular children’s TV shows like Land of the Lost and H.R. Pufnstuf, has died at the age of 96.

Krofft died Friday, April 10, of natural causes at the home of his friend and business partner, Kelly Killian, the Hollywood Reporter writes. Krofft’s publicist Adam Fenton added in a statement, “Sid Krofft was an icon who did what he loved most until the very end – being out in public with his legions of fans. Sid never slowed down, attending his final show where it all began just last November in his home state of Rhode Island. Sid was a beacon of light and will be greatly missed.”

Born in Montreal, Quebec, and raised in Rhode Island, Sid Krofft worked as a puppeteer in vaudeville and Ringling Bros. circus before he and his older brother Marty set their sights on television.

After a stint working for Hanna-Barbera’s The Banana Splits, the Kroffts created and produced H.R. Pufnstuf in 1969, a children’s TV series featuring puppets that was very attuned with the psychedelia of the era. Though the show was short-lived, lasting only one season of 17 episodes, H.R. Pufnstuf would later become a cult series and became a launchpad for similar Krofft productions.

In the Seventies, the Kroffts produced The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and Land of the Lost, with the latter series — about a time-warped family sent back to an era of stop-motion dinosaurs — adapted into a Will Ferrell-starring big screen film in 2009.

The brothers also headlined their own Krofft Supershow in the mid-1970s, while their puppeteering featured on variety shows ranging from The Brady Bunch Hour and Raquel Welch’s Really Raquel to Richard Pryor’s Pryor’s Place and Donny & Marie.

The Kroffts would later receive a Lifetime Achievement award from the Daytime Emmys as well as a joint star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Marty, who was eight years younger than Sid, died in 2023 at age 86.