Some bittersweet news this morning - Big Bird is retiring. More precisely, the voice behind the man inside Big Bird is hanging up his bright yellow feathers after nearly 50 years on "Sesame Street." ...

It's the end of an era on Sesame Street: The man who has given voice and life to Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for nearly 50 years is hanging up his big orange legs. Caroll Spinney, 84 ...

Caroll Spinney had been the voice actor and puppeteer behind Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird since 1969. To say he will be missed is a huge understatement. Pic credit: PBS/Sesame Street Workshop ...

infusing the 8-foot-2 Big Bird with a childlike sweetness often used to handle sad subjects, and giving the trashcan-dwelling Oscar, whose voice Spinney based on a New York cabbie, a street-wise ...

And even Oscar, once in a while.” Spinney said Big Bird’s voice was actually his own, just a little higher, but bringing him to life was physically demanding. He had to keep his right hand straight up ...

Big Bird looks at him — he was known for his swoopy nose — and says, [Big Bird voice] “Boy, I thought I had a funny-looking beak.” Here he is, one of the greatest comedians in the world ...

As the voice and operator of the two beloved Muppets ... yet sweet-natured 6-year-old canary instead — and it stuck. “Big Bird is him and he is Big Bird,” former “Sesame Street” head ...

Spinney's longtime apprentice, Matt Vogel, took over as puppeteer for Big Bird in 2015 when it became too difficult for Spinney to perform the role, while Spinney continued doing voice work until ...

they may also recall the Massachusetts man who brought movement and a voice to Big Bird. Before retiring in 2018, the late Waltham native Caroll Spinney voiced and puppeteered Big Bird and fellow ...

Spinney stopped getting inside Big Bird in 2015, when it had become too physically demanding for him to work the costume, but he continued to provide the voice for that character and Oscar until ...

He stopped puppeteering Big Bird three years ago and relegated himself to just the voice of the "Sesame Street" legend. (MORE: Big Bird Caroll Spinney Reveals 7 Things You Never Knew About 'Sesame ...