Caroll Spinney, the actor and puppeteer who portrayed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street over five decades, died Sunday at age 85.
The Sesame Workshop said Spinney had died at home in Connecticut, and that he had long lived with dystonia, a disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions.
"Caroll and Big Bird are very similar in their genuine niceness and sweetness and lovingness," said Joan Ganz Conney, co-founder of the Sesame Workshop said in a video tribute to Spinney last year. "He's just so respectful and so nice to all the kids, and all that comes across in Big Bird."
