NEW YORK — Sid Krofft, the creative mind behind kids’ classics “Land of the Lost” and “H.R. Pufnstuff” has died. He was 96.

His partner Kelly Killian said Monday that the six years she’d spent with the producer and puppeteer had come to an end in an Instagram post wishing there’d been more time.

“There is no way I could ever repay the life lessons he gave me, both the beautiful and the difficult,” Killian wrote. “Even now, I find myself instinctively checking in on him, walking into a room ready to ask him a question about a piece of history or a person that no longer exists.”

A spokesperson told People that Krofft died in his sleep from natural causes Friday in Killian’s home.

“Last Thursday night, he grabbed my arm and said, ‘Kelly, I need you to know something… I love you,'” she recalled in her message.”Those words will stay with me forever.”

Krofft, a Canadian native born Cydus Yolas, collaborated with his brother Marty Krofft on numerous projects including the 1969 program “ H.R. Pufnstuf” about a boy living on a magical island. That show ended in 1970. His puppets were featured on Hanna-Barbera’s “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” during that period.

Krofft was also an executive producer on nearly 150 fast food ads featuring Ronald McDonald between 1963 and 1960, according to IMDb.

His talent with puppets turned a hobby into a family business when the Kroffts moved to New York, according to a 2008 Los Angeles Times profile featuring the Krofft brothers playfully bickering with one another.

“To hear Marty talk, I’ve never worked a single day,” Krofft joked.

Krofft joined the Ringling Brothers circus as a puppeteer when he was 15 years old and went on to work with Andrews Sisters and Judy Garland. His younger brother later became part of the act.

The Krofft siblings’ greatest success may have been the time-traveling children’s adventure series “The Land of the Lost,” which aired Saturday mornings on NBC between 1974 and 1976. It was adapted into a 2009 movie starring Will Ferrell.

Krofft told the Los Angeles Times that pop star Michael Jackson expressed interest in purchasing their business, but that deal never came to be.

Marty died in November 2023. The siblings were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2020.

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