China Daily Global Edition (USA)
End of an era: Big Bird is flying the coop
NEW YORK — After nearly 50 years on Sesame Street, the actor who has brought Big Bird to life on the iconic children’s television series since its debut in 1969 is retiring.
Puppeteer Caroll Spinney, who also plays Oscar the Grouch, has handpicked his successors to play the two roles — after mentoring them for more than two decades.
“Big Bird brought me so many places, opened my mind and nurtured my soul,” Spinney said in a statement released on Wednesday by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization that produces the show.
“But now, it’s time for two performers that I have worked with and respected — and actually handpicked for the guardianship of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch — to take my alter-egos into their hands and continue to give them life.”
Spinney, 84, helped create two characters that have indelibly marked the childhoods of millions of people.
He has won multiple Daytime Emmys for his work, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a Grammy Award to his credit, for best children’s recording.
His life was the subject of the 2014 documentary I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story.
Big Bird, the instantly recognizable giant yellow bird with the huge beak, is more than 2.5 meters tall. In 2000, he was named a Living Legend by the US Library of Congress. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Matt Vogel, the show’s puppet captain, will take over as Big Bird. Eric Jacobsen will play the role of Oscar the Grouch, the grumpy green character who lives in a garbage can.