Eugene Lambert dies aged 82

Puppeteer and ventriloquist Eugene Lambert has died at the age of 82.
Born in 1928 in Sligo, Mr Lambert later moved to Monkstown in Co Dublin, where he died at home yesterday evening.
He is survived by his wife Mai and eight of their children.

With the rise of television in the 1960s, the Lambert puppet theatre became a fixture in Irish broadcasting. In the early 1960s, Lambert devised a puppet series for children entitled Murphy agus a Chairde  (”Murphy And His Friends”). Murphy was a giant who lived in a magical kingdom. Its king, “An Rí”, only had one problem - constant mischief from two witches, Feemy and Babóg. The Irish TV broadcaster RTÉ was the only station most Irish people could receive, and Murphy’s adventures were soon an important part of most children’s viewing. Murphy himself appeared as the in-vision continuity announcer all through one of RTÉ’s Christmas Day broadcasts.

Lambert later co-starred in the children’s television series Wanderly Wagon as the mischievous and greedy “O’Brien”, known for his child-like curiosity and cowardice in the face of magical events. Lambert and his family provided many regular (puppet) characters - Judge the dog, Mr Crow (who lived in a cuckoo clock), the mysterious Foxy Loxy, and the untrustworthy Ssneaky Ssnake. The series also featured Irish actor Frank Kelly, who later appeared as Fr. Jack Hackett in Father Ted.All of the Lambert children also worked on the show, which ran until 1982.
Mr Lambert was founder and director of the Lambert Puppet Theatre, which was established in 1972.

Michael Jackson befriended the veteran puppeteer after playing a concert in Dublin in 1992 and visited him again with his three children on his birthday in August 2007. Emily Tully said her grandfather, who sang Happy Birthday through one of his puppets to Jackson, was a big fan of the pop star.

Minister for Arts, Sports & Tourism Martin Cullen has paid tribute to Mr Lambert, saying he ‘enriched the lives of adults and children’.
Mr Cullen said: ‘Eugene Lambert was a master of the art of puppetry and Eugene’s place in Irish theatre is unparalleled.’
‘Eugene was a natural storyteller whose words were entertaining and accessible to his young audiences’, he added.