Today is Big Bird’s 55th birthday — meet the Mass. man who gave him a soul

Even though he’ll be 6 forever, Sesame Street’s favorite yellow bird is technically turning 55 on March 20.

Big Bird, an 8-foot, 2-inch, flightless-bird that may or may not be a canary, made his way onto television screens in November 1969 with his debut on “Sesame Street,” the children’s educational series on PBS.

For Bay Staters, the celebration of Big Bird’s life may resonate deeper than fondly remembering the Muppet who was everybody’s friend; 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 Sesame Street character Oscar the Grouch, for half a century.

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Who is Big Bird?

For 55 years, Big Bird has been portrayed as reflective, thoughtful and sensitive to the feelings of others, according to Sesame Street Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street.

He possesses a “childlike innocence and great empathy for everyone on Sesame Street,” and “understands what it means to be a good friend.”

Big Bird has left a lasting impression on viewers through displays of children and adults breaking down social-emotional dilemmas — gaining attention from various outlets for helping viewers become “better people.”

“He enjoys helping others in his community, including his best friend Snuffy,” wrote Sesame Street Workshop.

In an article published by the New York Times, the relationship between Big Bird and his friend, Mr. Snuffleupagus, a big creature resembling a furry brown elephant, is recognized for helping viewers understand the dynamics of friendships. It also explored the effects of gaslighting, since, for 14 seasons, Big Bird insisted on Snuffy’s existence, but adult characters never saw him, so they thought he was imaginary.

“Big Bird had a tough time getting grown-ups to believe him,” wrote the New York Times. “They dismissed his super-reclusive pal Mr. Snuffleupagus as an imaginary friend — or maybe even an elaborate lie.”

• Read more: Caroll Spinney, man who voiced ‘Sesame Street’ characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, dies at 85

It wasn’t until Season 17, and after a string of high-profile child sexual abuse cases in the news, that Sesame Street allowed Big Bird to reveal Snuffy’s existence — showing children that adults would believe them when they told the truth.

The 6-year-old bird tells adults how it made him feel when they did not believe him for years.

“Big Bird, you have a right to be angry… after all this time and we didn’t believe you — that must have been very hard for you,” said one adult.

“Yeah, it was,” said Big Bird.

The episode breaks-down the social-emotional processing children face when they are not believed, showing how upset Big Bird was and the various reactions of the adults around him.

The Massachusetts native inside Big Bird

Spinney was 84 when he put Big Bird’s 4,000-6,000 feathers to rest for his retirement in 2018, with long-term stand-in, Matt Vogel succeeding his position.

On Dec. 8, 2019, Spinney passed away in Woodstock, Conn. at age 85.

“He was beautiful outside and inside,” Caroll Spinney’s wife, Debra Spinney, told MassLive earlier this month. “He knew how to love so well and this is where Big Bird came from.”

Spinney said although Big Bird was the character everyone came to know and love, it was Spinney’s soul that inhabited the Muppet.

Born in the dining room of his childhood home, Caroll Spinney moved from Waltham to Acton at about age 5, his wife said.

After high school, Caroll Spinney attended the Art Institute of Boston for two years, before joining the Air Force, where he served for four years. When he returned to Massachusetts, Spinney was 23 and began looking for jobs.

Although he was offered an animation position at Disney, he turned the opportunity down and focused on breaking into the TV biz in Boston.

In the meantime, Spinney finished his bachelor’s degree from AIB, said Debra Spinney, and was soon cast for Boston’s The Bozo Show.

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In the 2015 Tribeca Enterprises documentary, I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, Spinney said that while he “loved” working on The Bozo Show, he “didn’t feel it was particularly important — it was mind candy.”

He said he wanted to do something “more important with puppets,” prompting him to go to a puppetry festival in Salt Lake City of August of 1969.

Jim Henson, a puppeteer and creator of the Muppets, approached Spinney in his dressing room after an unsuccessful performance and said, “I liked what you were trying to do,” and invited him to work on the set of Sesame Street, in New York.

Jane Henson, Jim Henson’s wife, shared in the documentary that “the idea that Jim first saw him handling a lot of mishaps in his own show was to his advance because that’s the kind of quality that Jim wanted in a Big Bird.”

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Debra Spinney told MassLive it was Spinney’s idea to have Big Bird play the role of a child, as the initial character was described as a “country yokel.”

In the 2015 documentary, Caroll Spinney said “the scripts suddenly were all Big Bird and Oscar, and they were terrific.”

While research and education have been ingrained into Sesame Street since its inception, beyond academic learning, Debra Spinney said a value Spinney wanted to teach children in his role as Big Bird was compassion.

“He’s [Big Bird] a great example of children possessing emotions,” said Spinney. “We’ve met so many people around the world and Big Bird has touched their souls.”

She recalled a time when Caroll Spinney had read an article that said “the compassionate Big Bird,” to which Spinney teared up.

In an article published in the New York Times, Matt Vogel, who was Spinney’s apprentice since 1996 and is now Big Bird, said carrying on Spinney’s legacy is “daunting and important.”

“The more I do the character, the more that I try to preserve what I think Caroll’s intentions were,” said Vogel in the New York Times. “Inevitably, part of our own personality starts to creep into those characters. But that’s the way they live on.”

Fun facts about Caroll Spinney and Big Bird

Big Bird is 8-foot, 2-inches, but Spinney was 5-foot, 10-inches.

In the Tribeca documentary, Spinney shows and describes how he managed to operate the gigantic puppet.

Spinney held his arm above his head, using his hands to operate Big Bird’s mouth and arms. Spinney watched his movements from a monitor strapped to his stomach from within the suit, and taped his script to the inside of the Muppet.

Big Bird has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Big Bird received a star on Hollywood Boulevard on April 21, 1994. Spinney was in attendance.

Debra Spinney told MassLive one of her personal goals is to get Caroll Spinney his own Hollywood star, as “the person doesn’t have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Big Bird does.”

Caroll Spinney has won several Emmys.

Spinney holds half a dozen Emmys, according to imdb.com, including awards for Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series, 2007, Special Classification of Outstanding Individual Achievement, 1984 and two awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children’s Programming, 1979 and 1974.

Spinney met his wife, Debra Spinney, while working on Sesame Street. They wed in Massachusetts.

It’s unclear what kind of bird Big Bird actually is.

“Caroll always said in Big Bird’s mind, he was a giant yellow condor, but in reality, he was just a lark,” Debra Spinney told MassLive.

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