Problem: Background: Gary Barlow OBE (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer of the British pop group Take That. Barlow also served as head judge of The X Factor UK in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and Let It Shine in 2017. Barlow is one of Britain's most successful songwriters, having written fourteen number one singles and twenty-four top 10 hits.
Context: After leaving his career as a solo artist Barlow returned to his first love of writing music. He soon signed a song writing publishing deal with Sony and went to the US on a six-month songwriting project, residing in Nashville, Los Angeles and New York with his wife, Dawn and first child, Daniel. Upon his return he set up True North Productions with Eliot Kennedy and Tim Woodcock. In his autobiography 'My Take' Barlow partly blames his fall as a solo artist on his commitments to being a star in the United States. After his disappointing second album, Barlow remained out of the public eye for half a decade, choosing to continue to write and produce songs for other artists such as Shirley Bassey and Charlotte Church In October 2007, Barlow founded San Remo Live Publishings as an independently run management company to establish and support artists and songwriters.  In 2010 Barlow signed a new 5-year song writing publishing deal with Sony music. He has been voted as the greatest British songwriter of all time in a 2009 OnePoll, who surveyed 3,000 people John Lennon and Paul McCartney, of The Beatles, were placed second and third respectively.  In 2011, Barlow wrote the song "Run for Your Life" for The X Factor series 7 winner Matt Cardle's debut album. Cardle told The Sun: "We had 99% of the album finished then the track came through from Gary. I'd been trying to write a song like that for a long, long time, probably five or six years. As soon as I heard it I just felt the song was mine. Lyrically it's about not being good enough for the person you're with. I was nearly in tears recording the vocals. I'm proud that I've written a lot of the album but Gary is a genius as a writer - I couldn't pass it up." He has also written for the likes of Robbie Williams, Westlife, Lily Allen, Blue, Elton John, Olly Murs Matt Cardle, T-Pain, Will Young N-Dubz, Lawson, Shirley Bassey, Donny Osmond, Delta Goodrem, Elaine Paige, Agnetha Faltskog and many more while also being commissioned by the Queen to write the official single for her Diamond Jubilee which saw Barlow collaborate with Andrew Lloyd Webber.  To date Barlow has written 14 number 1 singles in the UK, and 2 Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in the United States including Back for Good which went to number 1 in 31 countries across the world.
Question: Did he have any hits in the US?
Answer: 2 Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in the United States

Problem: Background: Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character and Jim Henson's most well-known creation. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the straight man protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. Henson originally performed Kermit until his death in 1990; Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time up until his dismissal from the role in 2016.
Context: Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.  Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions.  For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson).  Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters.
Question: How many years had he been the performer?
Answer:
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955