Caroll Spinney, 'Sesame Street' puppeteer who brought Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to life, has died at age 85 – Yahoo News

The man behind iconic Sesame Street characters including Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch has passed away, Sesame Workshop confirmed on Sunday. Caroll Spinney suffered from dystopia, a neurological condition that causes uncontrolled muscle movement. He died at his Connecticut home.

New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff, who met Spinney after the puppeteer’s retirement from Sesame Street, tweeted that Spinney’s “secret” included portraying Big Bird the way a child would have. “He can be all the things that children are. He can learn with the kids,” Spinney told Itzkoff of Big Bird in 2018.