Caroll Spinney
Encyclopedia
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
.
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.
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:
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
.
Puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...
most famous for playing Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
and Oscar the Grouch
Oscar the Grouch
Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a green body , has no nose , and lives in a trash can. His favorite thing in life is trash; evidence for this is the song "I Love Trash". A running theme is his compulsive hoarding of seemingly useless items...
on the children's television show Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
.
Life and career
Spinney was born in Waltham, MassachusettsWaltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
and graduated from Acton High School
Acton-Boxborough Regional High School
Acton-Boxborough Regional High School is an open enrollment high school in Acton, Massachusetts. It serves the Massachusetts towns of Acton and Boxborough, with roughly 500 students per grade level in grades 9 through 12. ABRHS has consistently ranked among the top secondary schools in Massachusetts...
. When he was in the US Air Force, he wrote and illustrated Harvey, a comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
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
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, 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
Judy Valentine
Judy Valentine , an American singer and actress, was born 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts. While still a teenager, Valentine began singing professionally in local nightclubs...
'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
Tatyana Ali
Tatyana Marisol Ali is an American actress and R&B singer, best known for her childhood role as Ashley Banks on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air...
.
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
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
walking on the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
and the 1997 painting Autumn
Autumn
Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....
showing the large yellow bird playing in the Fall leaves.
Spinney currently resides in Woodstock, Connecticut
Woodstock, Connecticut
Woodstock is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 7,221 at the 2000 census.-Annual events:*The Woodstock Fair, run by the Woodstock Agricultural Society has been held since 1860. The current President of the Woodstock Fair is Susan Z. Hibbard...
, with his wife, Debra. Spinney also has three children from a previous marriage.
As a Sesame Street puppeteer
Spinney first met Jim HensonJim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
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
Kermit Love
Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love was an American puppeteer, costume designer, and actor in children's television and on Broadway...
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
Zhima Jie
Zhima Jie is the Chinese co-production of Sesame Street. The show was produced from 1998 to 2001, for a total run of 130 half-hour episodes. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive it for the 2004 season, however it returned in 2010 as Zhima Jie: Da Niao Kan Shijie...
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
33rd Daytime Emmy Awards
The 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards, commemorating excellence in American daytime programming from 2005, was held on Friday, April 28, 2006 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. This was the first time that the Daytime Emmys were held outside of New York. ABC televised the ceremonies in the United States...
Daytime Emmy Awards, Spinney received the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences or NATAS was created in 1955 to advance the arts and sciences of television. Headquartered in New York, NATAS's membership is national and the organization has local chapters around the country....
' 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
Brian Muehl
Brian Muehl born in the 1950s, is an American book writer, and a former Sesame Street puppeteer living in Connecticut.Brian's muppet characters included Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend, Grundgetta, Telly Monster, Barkley the dog and Forgetful Jones's girlfriend Clementine. He continued to voice...
took over the character in 1980, and the character was given the name Elmo
Elmo
Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
. The character was taken over by Richard Hunt
Richard Hunt (puppeteer)
Richard Hunt was an American puppeteer best known as a Muppet performer. Hunt's Muppet roles included Scooter, Beaker, Janice, Statler, and Sweetums.-Early years:...
in 1984 and finally given to Kevin Clash
Kevin Clash
Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer and voice actor whose characters include Elmo, Baby Sinclair, Clifford, Splinter and Hoots the Owl...
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
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is an American adventure comedy film directed by Shawn Levy, and starring Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, and Steve Coogan. The film is a sequel to Night at the Museum...
in a cameo appearance next to Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
.