According to an article that has happened in 1990, Henson died suddenly of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome when he was only 53. I tell Oz I still find it shocking how quickly it happened. “The Disney deal is probably what killed Jim. It made him sick,” Oz replies. At the time of Henson’s death, he was negotiating with Michael Eisner, then the head of Disney, about selling the Muppets. “Eisner was trying to get Sesame Street, too, which Jim wouldn’t allow. But Jim was not a dealer, he was an artist, and it was destroying him, it really was,” says Oz.