Sesame Street Big Bird Puppeteer Spinney Dies at 85

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Sunday, December 08, 2019

GoLocalPDX Lifestyle Team

Long-time Big Bird puppeteer Caroll Spinney — who also manned Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street — has died.

TMZ reports:

Spinney passed away Sunday at his Connecticut home after living with Dystonia for a while, according to Sesame Workshop ... the nonprofit org behind the hit children's television show. Dystonia is a movement disorder in which a person's muscles contract uncontrollably.

Incredibly, the longtime puppeteer worked on the show for 49 years ... and retired from 'Sesame' just last year. He had been on the show since its early days in 1969. Besides being the man behind Big Bird, Spinney also handled and voiced Oscar the Grouch.

The legendary Jim Henson brought Spinney on-board, and by most accounts ... he struggled bringing Big Bird to life at first and having him resonate with the audience. Eventually, Spinney said he turned BB into a "big kid" character -- and the rest was history.

Retirement — and Pay

The Hollywood Reporter listed Spinney as making $300,000 a year, before he retired in 2018:

Marisa Guthrie wrote of Sesame Street:

"It's a sprawling, expensive operation that employs about 400 people, including several highly skilled puppeteers (Caroll Spinney, the top-tier puppet master who played Big Bird, made about $300,000 a year before he retired in 2018)

Photo: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

https://bush41library.tamu.edu/audiovisual/photos/44

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