Caroll Spinney, the longtime puppeteer and voice actor for Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, has died at the age of 85, according to a press release from the Sesame Workshop.
Spinney was a staple of Sesame Street from the show’s inception in 1969, where he inhabited the roles of the 8’2’’ Big Bird in a full-body costume and the curmudgeonly Oscar the Grouch for nearly half a century.
Spinney died at his home in Woodstock, Connecticut following complications from a history of dystonia, a common muscular condition which causes contractions.
Source: IGN.com Caroll Spinney, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch actor, Dead at 85