Jim Henson

This is why I still want to be like Jim Henson when I grow up: some of the coolest farewell letters ever: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2013/09/dont-feel-bad-that-im-gone.html
(Yes, another gem from the Letters of Note site, devoted to "correspondence deserving of a wider audience.") 

Which reminds me -- I recently saw a short clip of a pilot episode from a proposed 1970's Orson Welles talk show.  He introduced his first guest, if memory serves, with these words: "Think of Rasputin ... as an Eagle Scout."  Meaning none other than Jim Henson!  He quizzed Oz and Henson on whether they had played with puppets before they became puppeteers, and seemed to find it deeply suspicious that they had not.