Caroll Spinney

Caroll Spinney
Spinney at the New York Comic Convention in Manhattan, October 9, 2010.
Born	December 26, 1933 (1933-12-26) Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other names	Carroll Spinney Ed Spinney
Occupation	Puppeteer
Years active	1955–present
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Caroll Edwin Spinney, sometimes credited as Carroll Spinney or Ed Spinney (born December 26, 1933), is an American puppeteer most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on the children's television show Sesame Street.

Life and career

Spinney was born in Waltham, Massachusetts and graduated from Acton High School. When he was in the US Air Force, he wrote and illustrated Harvey, a comic strip about military life. He also animated a series of black and white cartoons called Crazy Crayon. These were done under the pseudonym "Ed Spinney."

In 1955, Spinney headed to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he created the show Rascal Rabbit. He returned to Boston, joining The Judy and Goggle Show in 1958 as a puppeteer. At this series, he was Goggle, to Judy Valentine's Judy.

Throughout the 1960s, he performed on the Boston broadcast of Bozo's Big Top, where he played Mr. Lion, who created cartoons from the names of children participating in the show. Through that decade, he was also a commercial artist and animator.

Spinney created a puppet of a cat named Picklepuss, long before he joined the inaugural cast of Sesame Street. This cat and his other friends joined Spinney in entertaining audiences of the 1960s. Spinney's Picklepuss and Pop puppets were characters in the 1988 family video Wow, You're a Cartoonist!, starring Tatyana Ali.

In addition to his artwork as a puppetteer, Mr. Spinney is also an accomplished artist- and has been drawing and painting since he was a child. Some of his artwork include the 1996 painting titled Luna Bird showing Big Bird walking on the moon and the 1997 painting Autumn showing the large yellow bird playing in the Fall leaves.

Spinney currently resides in Woodstock, Connecticut, with his wife, Debra. Spinney also has three children from a previous marriage.

As a Sesame Street puppeteer

Spinney first met Jim Henson in 1962 at a puppeteering festival, where Henson asked if Spinney would like to "talk about the Muppets". As Spinney failed to interpret the question as a employment offer, the conversation never came to pass. In 1969, Spinney performed at a Puppeteers of America festival in Utah. Spinney's show was a mixture of live actors and puppets. Jim 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. He nearly left after Season 1, because he wasn't getting paid well, but Kermit Love persuaded him to stay. The characters of Big Bird and Oscar have maintained integral roles in the series over the decades.

As Oscar the Grouch, Spinney has written 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 (ISBN 0-375-50781-7).

His work has been studied by other international puppeteers who structure their performance styles after his, most evidently with full-body puppet costumes. The Chinese performer of Da Niao on Zhima Jie is most evident of this, as the character is an exact physical replica of Big Bird.

Over the past 36 years, Spinney has been honored with four Daytime Emmy Awards for his portrayals on the series and two Grammy Awards for his related recordings. Two of the recordings Spinney's voice can be heard on have earned Gold Record status. For his body of work, Spinney has received both a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994 and the Library of Congress's Living Legend award in 2000.

As Big Bird/Oscar, Spinney has:

• performed the characters in Australia, China, Japan, and across Europe.
• visited the White House multiple times.
• conducted orchestras across the US and Canada, including the Boston Pops.
• starred in the theatrically released movie Follow that Bird, with a high-billing in Elmo in Grouchland.
• served as a recording artist on dozens of albums.

At the 2006 Daytime Emmy Awards, Spinney received the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Lifetime Achievement Award. "I am elated and amazed to receive this honor from those who are committed to the best of what television and media have to offer, for doing what I've always wanted to do."

Though Big Bird and Oscar are his main characters, Spinney has 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 has also performed as Granny Bird. Spinney was one of many puppeteers of a Muppet named Baby Monster in the 1970s. This character was an "anything monster" Muppet played by various Muppeteers until Brian Muehl took over the character in 1980, and the character was given the name Elmo. The character was taken over by Richard Hunt in 1984 and finally given to Kevin Clash by Hunt a year later.

Caroll Spinney reprised his role as Oscar the Grouch in the movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian in a cameo appearance next to Darth Vader.

External links

• Official Caroll Spinney Site
• Caroll Spinney at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Spinney-authorized Fan Page
• 30 Years as an 8 foot bird. NY Times
• Carroll Spinney Archive of American Television interview