Jimmy Ray Dean was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer, television host, actor and businessman. Although he may be best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand

Jimmy Dean (brand)

Jimmy Dean Foods is a food company that was founded in 1969 by the late country singer and actor Jimmy Dean who died in the summer of 2010. It was purchased by Consolidated Foods, later renamed Sara Lee Corporation.-History:...

, he became a national television personality starting in 1957, rising to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit "Big Bad John

Big Bad John

"Big Bad John" is a country song originally performed by Jimmy Dean and composed by Dean and Roy Acuff. Released in September 1961, by the beginning of November it went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording.The song and its...

" and his television series, The Jimmy Dean Show

The Jimmy Dean Show

The Jimmy Dean Show is the name of several similar music and variety series on American local and network television between 1957–75. Each starred country music singer Jimmy Dean as host.-Daytime:...

, which also gave puppeteer

Puppeteer

A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...

 Jim Henson

Jim Henson

James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...

 his first national media exposure. His acting career included a supporting role as Willard Whyte in the 1971 James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 movie, Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever (film)

Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...

.