Terri Hardin

Terri Hardin Jackson (born June 21, 1957) is an American puppeteer, artist, and former Disney imagineer.

Her first Hollywood job came during her college years in which she built the stillsuits for the film version of Dune and acted as a stunt double for Sean Young. A job on the Columbia Pictures blockbuster Ghostbusters followed in which she played both of the demon dogs at the "Temple of Zuul" and served as a puppeteer for both the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and the ghost librarian seen at the opening of the film.

Hardin was hired by Disney Studios in 1987 during her stint with Universal Studios Hollywood as a sculptor creating "walk-around" character costumes. She helped design the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and La Tanière du Dragon (The Dragon's Lair) attractions at Disneyland Paris.

Hardin later worked for Disney's sculpting team, where she contributed to the Splash Mountain attractions and to Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D. She has also created sculptures Disney collectables and for Mattel, Nickelodeon and Applause.

Hardin worked for The Jim Henson Company for over 30 years, performing in Dinosaurs, The Flintstones, The Indian in the Cupboard and The Country Bears.

One of her claims to fame is being named the number one Star Wars fan in the news media. When Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977, Terri went to see the movie and loved it. However, she didn't just see it that one time. She saw it a total of 66 times before theater employees caught her sneaking in wearing different disguises each time. With every viewing of the film, she would sketch the characters and she would write down all the names she could when the credits rolled. Channel 7 News interviewed her and used a clip of her saying that she had seen the film 100 times. By the end of its run, Terri had seen A New Hope 180 times. Because of her media coverage as the No. 1 fan, she ended up in the George Lucas biography, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas. She is mentioned on page 3. In 2015, the book A Galaxy All Their Own was published with Terri on the cover and had over two pages dedicated to her inside.

The list of attractions that Terri had a hand in while in Walt Disney Imagineering is extensive.