Caroll Spinney
Caroll Spinney
Caroll Edwin Spinneyis an American puppeteer and cartoonist, most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. He has sometimes been credited as Carroll Spinney or Ed Spinney...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCartoonist
Date of Birth26 December 1933
CountryUnited States of America
genuinely half life older played
I've played Big Bird for over half my life, and now I'm in my 80s. It does feel older than 79. Someone said it's just a number, and I said, 'No, I genuinely feel older.'
good imagine job reason till
I see no reason to quit. I can't imagine walking away from being Big Bird. I mean, that's an awfully good job that there's not too many of them. So I just want to keep doing it till I can't do it anymore.
beak bird bizarre exact feet great identify inches kids looks mind negative nice opposite oscar positive sweet though view
Oscar is the exact opposite of how I think you should behave. I just think of it as a negative view of the positive mind I have. Big Bird is sweet and nice and also sympathetic, as kids can identify with him even though he looks like such a bizarre character - great 8 feet 2 inches, a beak 18 inches long.
complete human struggles
Big Bird went through his very human kind of struggles as a child. No other children's character has been that complete and detailed.
based
Big Bird is based on what I learned as a child.
learned taught
I've learned to say, 'I'm a friend of Big Bird. He even taught me how to sound like him.'
best designed exaggerate trying
You can exaggerate with puppets. You're not trying to look like real people. The way the Muppets are designed is really appealing. Puppets are best if they're exaggerated creatures.
draw few found incredibly seconds
I found out animation is incredibly boring. You draw and draw and draw, and it's only a few seconds done in a week.
billion continue expressing gotten imagine inside lottery love playing thoroughly won
Frankly, I think if I won the lottery and won a billion dollars, I'd still want to continue doing this job. I love expressing myself through it. I've gotten to really love acting. And I've gotten to know Big Bird from the inside out so thoroughly it's like playing my kid. I can't imagine deliberately stopping.
chatting children face hit liked meet pleased unhappy
I was suffering a divorce, and I was very unhappy because my children were very young. It hit me when a woman, a fan, was chatting with me. She was pleased to meet Big Bird because her children liked him and liked the show, but she didn't know that my face was streamed with tears.
job pass people
Most people don't hold a job for 45 years. They pass on or want to retire. I don't want to retire. My real goal is to do 50 years on 'Sesame Street,' and I only got 4-and-a-half years to go.
early last life remember week
I have a strong memory of my early childhood. I can remember life before I was two. I remember being toilet-trained like it was last week - and it wasn't last week.
bought built cents collected five good grew knew paid puppet puppeteer scrap wood
When I was eight, I bought my first puppet. It was a monkey, and I paid five cents for it. I collected some scrap wood and built myself a puppet theatre. I made 32 cents with my first show, which I thought was pretty good, and that's when I knew I would be a puppeteer when I grew up.
good moving singing
The other puppeteers are really good, often when they are singing together, they go left, right, left... But if they are all moving to the left, I'm moving to the right. Big Bird and Oscar, that's okay, because they are individuals anyway.