Caroll Spinney, 'Sesame Street' Puppeteer Behind Big Bird, Dies at 85

Caroll Spinney, who gave Big Bird his warmth and Oscar the Grouch his growl for nearly 50 years on “Sesame Street," died at the age of 85 at his home in the US state of Connecticut on Sunday, according to the Sesame Workshop.

The Sesame Workshop said in a statement that the legendary puppeteer had lived for some time with dystonia, which causes involuntary muscle contractions.

Spinney voiced and operated the two major Muppets from their inception in 1969 when he was 36, and performed them almost exclusively into his 80s on the children's television show.

Through his two characters, Spinney gained huge fame that brought international tours, books, record albums, movie roles, and visits to the White House.

Spinney gave “Sesame Street” its emotional yin and yang, infusing Big Bird with a childlike sweetness often used to handle sad subjects, and giving Oscar, whose voice he based on a New York cabbie, a street-wise cynicism that masked a tender core.

Born in 1933 in Waltham Massachusetts, Spinney had a deeply supportive mother who built him a puppet theatre after he bought his first puppet, a monkey, at age eight.

He spent four years in the US air force after high school, then returned to Massachusetts and broke into television.

He teamed up with fellow puppeteer Judy Valentine for their own daily series, then worked on a Boston version of the clown show “Bozo’s Big Top.”

Spinney in this period had three children, Jessica, Melissa and Benjamin, all from his 1960 to 1971 marriage to Janice Spinney.

He later married his second wife Debra in 1979, and the two were nearly inseparable for the rest of his life.

It was after a disastrous performance at a puppet festival in Utah that Spinney met Muppet master Jim Henson.

In his memoir, Spinney remembered Henson as coming backstage and telling him: “I liked what you were trying to do.”

Spinney would join the Muppet crew when “Sesame Street” was about to turn them from popular phenomenon into a US institution.

Henson brought his signature character, Kermit the Frog, to the show.

His right-hand man Frank Oz would become famous via Grover and Cookie Monster.

Together they created Ernie and Bert.

But Big Bird would become the show’s biggest star, his name and image synonymous with “Sesame Street.”

The character was usually used for comedy, but his innocence and questioning was also useful when serious subjects needed addressing.

When “Sesame Street” shopkeeper Mr. Hooper died, Big Bird had to get a lesson in accepting death, saying in the memorable 1983 episode that “he’s gotta come back... Who’s gonna make my birdseed milkshakes, and tell me stories?”

When Henson died suddenly in 1990 at age 53, leaving the Muppet world devastated, Big Bird played the same part in real life.

At the funeral, Spinney appeared alone on stage in full Big Bird costume and sang “It's Not Easy Bein' Green," Kermit’s signature song.

Sesame Street co-founder Joan Ganz Cooney said on Sunday that Spinney, her longtime colleague and friend, “not only gave us Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, he gave so much of himself as well."

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