Caroll Spinney has announced his retirement from Sesame Street. While he isn’t a household name himself, he is the puppeteer behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. “Big Bird brought me so many places, opened my mind and nurtured my soul,” said Spinney. “And I plan to be an ambassador for Sesame Workshop for many years to come. After all, we’re a family! But now it’s time for two performers that I have worked with and respected – and actually hand-picked for the guardianship of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch – to take my alter-egos into their hands and continue to give them life.” Spinney is 84 and has worked with Sesame Street since its 1969 debut.