The baby from Labyrinth is all grown up.
At just one year old, Toby Froud captured hearts all around the globe when he starred in the beloved 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth alongside David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.
The film followed a teenager named Sarah who journeyed through a scary and confusing maze to rescue her baby brother Toby from the Goblin King after she wished him away.
It was immensely popular and has since become a cult classic, still beloved by millions nearly 40 years on.
Froud was just an infant when he appeared in the flick, and now, almost four decades later, it still holds a special place in his heart just like it does for many of its fans.
He recently reflected on the role during a rare interview with People magazine.
Froud, now 41, said that despite looking completely different from how he did in the flick, he still gets noticed by fans of the movie.
‘People will come up to me and go, are you baby Toby?’ he told the publication. ‘Or they find out who I am, and then they’re amazed at the fact that I’m now older.
‘It’s a wonderful thing because it shows that [Labyrinth] stood the test of time.’
Froud admitted that he doesn’t have much recollection of making the flick since he was so young, but a few things have stuck with him.
‘The truth is, no [I don’t remember it], not necessarily, but I do have visions of goblins surrounding me and being a part of my life,’ the former child star said.
Froud’s parents met while working on Henson’s film The Dark Crystal. His dad is a painter and his mom is a puppet-maker.
They were working on the preproduction of Labyrinth when Froud was born, so it was only fitting that Henson gave him the role.
Froud told the outlet that he believes his parents’ love of puppetry, fantasy and arts helped him be so calm on set around all the fake goblins.
‘I grew up with goblins and fairies surrounding me my whole life. Labyrinth feels normal to me. The rest of the world is weird,’ he joked.
‘I grew up around the creatives and puppets… so I was very at ease with them.
‘I loved the puppets, I squished their noses. It was very natural.’
He did, however, get upset during the famous Dance Magic scene with Bowie, in which the acclaimed singer sang and danced around baby Toby.
‘It was loud and it made me cry,’ recalled Froud.
Despite his early start as an actor, he ultimately followed in his parents’ footsteps and found a job in puppetry.
In the late ’90s and early 2000s, he landed a job at the Muppet Workshop. He also worked on the puppetry for big films like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and King Kong.
He went on to start his own production company called Stripey Pajama Productions – named after his famous outfit in Labyrinth – and wrote and directed his own fantasy short film in 2014 called Lessons Learned.
Froud spent years working as a stop-motion animator for the movie studio Laika, helping create a slew of films, including ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Missing Link.
He then served as the design supervisor for the popular 2019 series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and most recently, he worked on the 2022 movie Pinocchio.
Now, Froud, a father of one, who lives in Portland, Oregon, told People that he serves as the puppet art director for the company Shadowmachine.
‘I’m working on several projects in development at this time,’ he shared.
