Original Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch Actor Leaves Sesame Street After 49 Years
Its the end of an era. Caroll Spinney, who has played the beloved characters Big Bird and Oscar the ..
Its the end of an era. Caroll Spinney, who has played the beloved characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street since 1969, is leaving the show.
Its understandable that Spinney, who is 84 years old, might want to retire; a representative for Sesame Workshop told The New York Times that Spinney appeared in thousands of Sesame Street episodes throughout his run, although she did not have a precise number. Matt Vogel, who has previously inherited roles including Kermit the Frog and Count von Count, will succeed Spinney as Big Bird—but the actors exit still marks a huge milestone for fans who have come to know and love his performance as two of the shows most memorable muppets.
Speaking with the Times, Spinney had nothing but praise for the classic childrens series. “Playing Big Bird is one of the most joyous things of my life,” he said. Though he has not worn the Big Bird costume himself since 2015, when the physical demands of playing the character became difficult, he has continued to voice the character. Originally, Spinney told the Times, Big Bird was intended to be “a funny, dumb country yokel.” It was the actors idea to make him more child-like instead—a “surrogate” for the shows young viewers, someone who can learn on-screen as they do at home.
It was a game-changing suggestion; as Sesame Workshop president and chief executive Jeffrey Dunn put it, “Big Bird has always had the biggest heart on Sesame Street, and thats Carolls gift to us.” A bonus? Sesame Street also introduced Spinney to his wife, Debra, who worked in the shows community-education department when they met in 1972.
As the gentle, fluffy, eight-foot-two-inch giant Big Bird and the perpetually irritated trash-can dweller Oscar the Grouch, Spinney portrayed two opposite ends of the temperament spectrum. Big Bird is a loving soul, while Oscar is, well, a bit of a misanthrope. Still, from the sounds of it, Spinney loved them both equally. “I always thought, how fortunate for me that I got to play the two best Muppets?” he told the Times. His successors will have some large shoes to fill—and not just literally.
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