It's the end of an era on Sesame Street: The man who has given voice and life to Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for nearly 50 years is hanging up his big orange legs. Caroll Spinney, 84 ...

infusing the 8-foot-2 Big Bird with a childlike sweetness often used to handle sad subjects, and giving the trashcan-dwelling Oscar, whose voice Spinney based on a New York cabbie, a street-wise ...

And even Oscar, once in a while.” Spinney said Big Bird’s voice was actually his own, just a little higher, but bringing him to life was physically demanding. He had to keep his right hand straight up ...

Caroll Spinney had been the voice actor and puppeteer behind Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird since 1969. To say he will be missed is a huge understatement. Pic credit: PBS/Sesame Street Workshop ...

Spinney's longtime apprentice, Matt Vogel, took over as puppeteer for Big Bird in 2015 when it became too difficult for Spinney to perform the role, while Spinney continued doing voice work until ...

As the voice and operator of the two beloved Muppets ... yet sweet-natured 6-year-old canary instead — and it stuck. “Big Bird is him and he is Big Bird,” former “Sesame Street” head ...

The puppeteer had stopped wearing the unwieldy Big Bird suit a few years back, when he began experiencing balance problems, but continued to voice the character (whose voice is slightly higher ...

Spinney talks with Simon about what it's like to play Big Bird, and also a much darker character: Oscar the Grouch. It's just my own voice, a little higher. When he first started, Jim Henson ...

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