In addition to being a film director, Oz achieved notoriety as a puppeteer, performing Muppet characters Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in The Muppet Show, as well as Sesame Street favorites Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover. You’ll also know Oz as Yoda in Star Wars, in which he has performed and provided the voice for the character in several films and television series.

In many ways, Oz was synonymous with puppets, so it should come as no surprise that he naturally incorporated them into a lot of his films. His earlier works were The Dark Crystal (1982), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), which all utilized puppets. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels marked a turning point in Oz’s career where he began to shy away from his comfort zone. His work involving puppets may remain as some of his most beloved endeavors, but his work using actors as a puppet are just enjoyable.

In fact, Oz frequently used Steve Martin to this end, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels marks the second of five collaborations between them — the others being Bowfinger (1999), HouseSitter (1992), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), and The Muppet Movie (1979).