Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 10 december 2019
Sesame Street puppeteer Caroll Spinney dies at age 85

By ANDREW DALTON left hand to operate both
Associated Press arms. The bird tended to
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Car- slouch more as the years
oll Spinney, who gave Big took their toll.
Bird his warmth and Oscar In 2015, Spinney switched
the Grouch his growl for to just providing the char-
nearly 50 years on “Sesa- acters’ voices. That year,
me Street,” died Sunday at the longtime PBS show
the age of 85 at his home inked a five-year pact with
in Connecticut, according HBO that gave the premi-
to the Sesame Workshop. um cable channel the right
The legendary puppeteer to air new episodes nine
lived for some time with months before they air on
dystonia, which causes in- PBS.
voluntary muscle contrac- Big Bird’s builder Kermit
tions, the Sesame Work- Love always insisted that
shop said in a statement. his design was a puppet,
Spinney voiced and oper- not a costume. But to
ated the two major Mup- many children, he was nei-
pets from their inception in ther. He was real.
1969 when he was 36, and “Eight-year-olds have dis-
performed them almost ex- covered to their horror that
clusively into his 80s on the he’s a puppet,” Spinney
PBS kids’ television show told The Associated Press in
that later moved to HBO. 1987.
His death comes on the Born in 1933 in Waltham,
same day that “Sesame In this Thursday, April 27, 2006, file photo, Caroll Spinney, right, who portrays “Sesame Street” Massachusetts, Spinney
Street” is being honored characters Oscar The Grouch, left, and Big Bird, arrives for the Daytime Emmy nominee party at had a deeply supportive
for lifetime achievements the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. mother who built him a
in the arts as a Kennedy Associated Press puppet theater after he
Center Honors recipient. bought his first puppet, a
“Before I came to ‘Sesame shape and define Sesame yang, infusing the 8-foot- the kindly Spinney resem- monkey, at age 8.
Street,’ I didn’t feel like Street from its earliest days 2 Big Bird with a childlike bled. He spent four years in the
what I was doing was very in 1969 through five de- sweetness often used to “Big Bird is him and he is U.S. Air Force after high
important,” Spinney said cades, and his legacy here handle sad subjects, and Big Bird,” former “Sesame school, then returned to
when he announced his at Sesame Workshop and giving the trash can-dwell- Street” head writer Nor- Massachusetts and broke
retirement in 2018. “Big Bird in the cultural firmament ing Oscar — whose voice man Stiles said in a 2014 into television. He teamed
helped me find my pur- will be unending,” the Ses- Spinney based on a New documentary on Spinney. up with fellow puppe-
pose.” ame Workshop said. York cabbie — a streetwise It wasn’t easy being Big teer Judy Valentine for
Through his two charac- But he never became a cynicism that masked a Bird. To play the part, their own daily series, then
ters, Spinney gained huge household name. tender core. Spinney would strap a TV worked on a Boston version
fame that brought interna- “I may be the most un- “I like being miserable. That monitor to his chest as his of the clown show “Bozo’s
tional tours, books, record known famous person in makes me happy,” Os- only eyes to the outside. Big Top.” Spinney in this
albums, movie roles, and America,” Spinney said in car often said. “But I don’t Then the giant yellow bird period had three children,
visits to the White House. his 2003 memoir. “It’s the like being happy, so that body was placed over Jessica, Melissa and Ben-
“Caroll was an artistic ge- bird that’s famous.” makes me miserable.” him. He held his right arm jamin, all from his 1960 to
nius whose kind and loving Spinney gave “Sesame To colleagues there was no aloft constantly to oper- 1971 marriage to Janice
view of the world helped Street” its emotional yin and question which character ate the head, and used his Spinney. q

Baldacci’s new thriller spooks and horrifies

By WAKA TSUNODA fender trying to abduct a little girl. terviews her former neighbors, family
Associated Press She overpowers the man and pulls friends and a man who now lives in
“A Minute to Midnight: an Atlee Pine the girl to safety, but she doesn’t her childhood home.
Thriller,” Grand Central Publishing, by stop there. She beats him until he is Many remember the horrific inci-
David Baldacci unconscious. dent, but no one can shed any new
David Baldacci made his literary In her mind, the man has become light on it.
debut in 1996 with a political thriller, confused with the still unidentified Meanwhile, a woman’s corpse in a
“Absolute Power.” individual who came into her bed- wedding veil turns up, followed by
He has since written novels with room when she was 6 years old, al- another in a tuxedo and yet another
blinding speed, many of them ac- most killing her and running off with in an American Civil War costume.
tion thrillers featuring men with mili- her twin sister Mercy. Pine manages to solve these new
tary backgrounds. Ordered to take a vacation for hav- cases and even discovers some sur-
With his latest, “A Minute to Mid- ing used excessive force in the inci- prising secrets about her parents,
night,” the author changes gears dent, Pine returns to her hometown but the answer to her old case still This cover image released
and offers a murder mystery that in Georgia and attempts to solve evades her. by Grand Central Publishing
spooks and horrifies. the crime that happened nearly 30 For Atlee Pine fans, this is good news shows “A Minute to Midnight,”
The drama begins as FBI agent Atlee years ago. because it means Baldacci has an- by David Baldacci.
Pine comes upon a registered sex of- With the help of her assistant, Pine in- other thriller about her in the oven.q Associated Press