Bye-bye, Big Bird

Puppeteer who originally voiced Sesame Street mainstay mourned

NEW YORK — Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who brought boyish vulnerability to Big Bird, the towering yellow-plumed character, during 50 years on the groundbreaking children’s television show Sesame Street and even made garbage-loving Oscar the Grouch lovable, died on Sunday at the age of 85, the Sesame Workshop said.

Spinney, who suffered from the movement disorder dystonia, had provided only Big Bird’s voice since 2015 while another puppeteer was in the costume. “We at Sesame Workshop mourn his passing and feel an immense gratitude for all he has given to Sesame Street and to children around the world,” the show’s cofounder Joan Ganz Cooney said in a statement on Sunday.

Big Bird, Oscar and Spinney were part of Sesame Street when it made its debut Nov. 10, 1969, with the goal of entertaining and educating young children, especially those in low-income families.

Spinney announced his retirement at age 84 in October 2018 after completing episodes that were to be aired in 2019 to mark the show’s 50th year.

With Spinney inside, Big Bird danced with the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, sang at Carnegie Hall, passed out Emmys, appeared on the cover of Time magazine and toured China with Bob Hope. He performed with everyone from Johnny Cash to Michael Jackson.

Spinney’s career inside the Big Bird costume was portrayed in the 2015 documentary I Am Big Bird. The film covered some of his darker moments, including suicidal thoughts after his first wife left him and took their kids, and the jealousy he felt when the character Elmo became more popular than Big Bird.

The beloved Big Bird was a fluffy pear-shaped mass of yellow-dyed turkey feathers set atop spindly legs and standing more than eight feet tall. At first he was a dim-witted goof but Spinney developed him into a character whom children could relate to — an excitable naïf with the sensibilities of a six-year-old who was learning letters and numbers just like the young viewers who adored him.

Big Bird was often flustered but persevered with the help of his neighbours on Sesame Street, where puppet creatures and humans lived side by side.