Caroll Spinney celebrates 45 years as Sesame Street's Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch

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Caroll Spinney, 80, has been both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for the past 45 years since the show's first episode on Nov. 10, 1969
Spinney has been a part of the longest-running children's show in television history
Spinney: 'I'm reliving a better childhood through that bird'

Published: 17:05 EST, 14 November 2014 | Updated: 13:10 EST, 15 November 2014

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Beloved: Caroll Spinney, 80, is celebrating his 45th year with the beloved children's show Sesame Street in which he has played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since the show's first episode in 1969

Longtime television favorite Sesame Street celebrated it's 45th year on air this week and, with that, the man behind the show's leading puppet, Big Bird, is celebrating his 45th year as the big, yellow bird.

Caroll Spinney, 80, has been both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for the past 45 years since the show's first episode on Nov. 10, 1969, according to CBC News.

'It doesn't feel like it was 45 years. It's amazing,' Spinney told CBC.

The over eight-foot-tall bird has performed alongside countless celebrities over the years and Spinney has traveled to Japan, Australia, China, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for Sesame Street television specials.

It has remained somewhat of a secret that the six-year-old bird is actually played by an 80-year-old man, but the public got a deeper look into the life of the man behind the feathers in the 2014 documentary 'I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story.'

In the documentary, Spinney shares unknown stories of his time as both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch like the fire that occurred in Oscar's trash can almost killing Spinney as well as Spinney cheating death when he declined an offer to take himself and his Big Bird costume aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Spinney told the Los Angeles Times that when directors set out to make the documentary five years ago, they believed they would be capturing Spinney's last season as the beloved bird.

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Around the World: Spinney has traveled to Japan, Australia, China, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for Sesame Street television specials

I Am Big Bird: The public got a deeper look this year into the life of the man behind the feathers in the documentary ' I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story .'

Dave LaMattina, one of the documentary's directors, said it quickly became evident that wouldn't be the case.

'Nah,' Spinney told the Times. 'If you rest, you rust.'

Along with his longstanding status as the man behind one of television's most beloved characters, Spinney has also appeared in 'Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian' starring Ben Stiller.

Spinney is also an author, in 2003 he co-authored the book 'The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch) Lessons Learned from a Life in Feathers.'

Michelle Obama teams up with Sesame Street's Big Bird

Celebrities: The over eight-foot-tall bird has performed alongside countless celebrities over the years

Physically Challenging: With Spinney soon to celebrate his 81st birthday, he said that playing the eight-foot-tall bird has become difficult for him physically

With Spinney soon to celebrate his 81st birthday, he told CBC that playing the eight-foot-tall bird has become difficult for him physically.

Getting into the costume forces Spinney to contort himself and to sweat profusely. He told CBC that he sometimes has to breathe from an oxygen tank backstage.

Because the costume is over eight-feet-tall, Spinney has to use his left arm, holding it in the air constantly, the Times reports. And he can not see through the costume but instead interacts with the other characters by watching a monitor that is strapped to his chest.

Longest-Running: Spinney said that in 1969 he had no idea the show would become the longest-running children's show in television history

That does not seem to be stopping Spinney who said he hopes to put in another five years on the show. Though playing the bird may be tough, Spinney said it is fulfilling playing the bird, who he views as an extension of himself.

'I didn't have a great time at school. I was teased because of my name, my size, my big ears — and shame on them,' Spinney told the Times. 'I was a good kid who just wanted everybody to like me. That's the way Big Bird is. I'm reliving a better childhood through that bird who is a child, and I think I'm awfully lucky to have that child.'

Spinney told CBC that he believes a lot of today's children's shows are inappropriate and he is proud to be a part of a show that does not wrongly influence the young generation.

'It's a wonderful feeling,' he said. 'I really love that I'm able to be these characters.'

Spinney said he had no idea the show would become as big as it is back in 1969 when it 'seemed very slow and dull.' But Sesame Street is the longest-running children's show in television history.