Some bittersweet news this morning - Big Bird is retiring. More precisely, the voice behind the man inside Big Bird is hanging up his bright yellow feathers after nearly 50 years on "Sesame Street." ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Spinney stopped puppeteering in 2015 due to his age, but continued to voice the two iconic characters. While the original cast member may be retiring from the show, Big Bird is not going away ...

I met Caroll Spinney—the voice and body of both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since 1969—at an outdoor cafe in Lincoln Center, weeks before the May 6 premiere of I Am Big Bird: The Caroll ...

He stopped puppeteering Big Bird three years ago and relegated himself to just the voice of the "Sesame Street" legend. (MORE: Big Bird Caroll Spinney Reveals 7 Things You Never Knew About 'Sesame ...

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 ...