page_title: Caroll Spinney
section_title: As a Sesame Street Muppeteer
hierarchical_section_title: Caroll Spinney / Career / As a Sesame Street Muppeteer
caption_attribution_description: English: Puppeteer Caroll Spinney at the New York Comic Convention in Manhattan, October 9, 2010. Photo by Luigi Novi. This photo may be used, modified and published for any purpose, only if a easily visible credit to the photographer is placed near the photo in each instance in which it is used. Please maintain the original file name in all uses. (See licensing information below.) Publication of this photo without this proper attribution constitute copyright infringement. For more information on my photos, you can contact me here.
context_page_description: Caroll Edwin Spinney was an American puppeteer, cartoonist, author and speaker most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street from its inception in 1969 until 2018.
context_section_description: Spinney first met Jim Henson in 1962 at a puppeteering festival, where Henson asked if he would like to "talk about the Muppets". As Spinney failed to realize the question was an employment offer, the conversation never came to pass.
  In 1969, Spinney performed at a Puppeteers of America festival in Utah. His show was a mixture of live actors and puppets but was ruined by an errant spotlight that washed out the animated backgrounds. Henson was once again in attendance and noticed Spinney's performance. "I liked what you were trying to do," Henson said, and he asked once more if they could "talk about the Muppets". This time, they did have the conversation, and Spinney joined the Muppeteers full-time by late 1969.
  Spinney joined Sesame Street for the inaugural season in 1969. However, he nearly left after the first season because he was not getting acceptable pay, but Kermit Love persuaded him to stay. He has performed the Big Bird and Oscar characters in Australia, China, Japan, and across Europe. As Big Bird and Oscar, Spinney conducted orchestras across the US and Canada, including the Boston Pops, and visited the White House multiple times. He provided the characters' voices on dozens of albums.
  As Oscar, Spinney wrote How to Be a Grouch, a Whitman Tell-A-Tale picture book. With J. Milligan, he wrote the 2003 book The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers. Spinney narrated the audiobook Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis. His work has been studied by other international puppeteers who structure their performance styles after his, most evidently with full-body puppet costumes. For example, in the Chinese performance of Da Niao on Zhima Jie, the costume is an exact physical replica of Big Bird.
  Though Big Bird and Oscar were his main characters, Spinney also performed as other characters. At one point, he created and performed Bruno the Trash Man, a full-bodied puppet representing a garbage carrier, who also carried Oscar's trash can. Bruno was used until the foam plastic of the character broke down. Spinney also performed as Granny Bird, Big Bird's grandmother. The puppet used for Granny Bird was actually a spare Big Bird puppet, and Spinney provided her voice. As Granny Bird's appearances were often alongside Big Bird (who is, as she stated, her "favorite grandson"), her voice was usually pre-recorded so that Spinney could perform Big Bird. Spinney reprised his role as Oscar the Grouch in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian in a cameo appearance next to Darth Vader.
  On October 17, 2018, Spinney officially announced his retirement from Sesame Street. His last performances as Big Bird and Oscar were recorded as part of the series' landmark 50th season, which aired in 2019, albeit Spinney's final recording session as his characters was ultimately not used in the broadcast version of the episode. The roles of Big Bird and Oscar were handed over to Matt Vogel and Eric Jacobson, respectively. The Hollywood Reporter'' reported that Spinney was earning over $300,000 at the time of his retirement.
caption: Spinney at the New York Comic Con in Manhattan in October 2010
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