NEW YORK – Bob McGrath, who played the sweater-clad neighbourhood music teacher and general advice-giver on Sesame Street for almost half a century, died on Sunday morning. He was 90.
McGrath’s daughter Cat McGrath confirmed his death by e-mail on Sunday. She said he died from complications after a stroke.
McGrath was not particularly interested when he was told about a new children’s show on public television. But then he had never heard of Jim Henson, the puppeteer, and he had never seen a Muppet.
After his first meeting and a look at some of the animation, he knew this show would be different.
Sesame Street had its premiere in November 1969, with McGrath and other cast members gathered around an urban brownstone stoop, in front of the building’s dark green doors, beside its omnipresent collection of metal garbage cans.
His character, conveniently and coincidentally named Bob, was reliably smiling, easygoing and polite, whether he was singing about People In Your Neighborhood, discussing everyday concerns with young humans and Muppets, or taking a day trip to Grouchytown with Oscar the Grouch.
Viewers were outraged when McGrath and two other long-time cast members – Emilio Delgado, who played Luis, and Roscoe Orman, who played Gordon – were fired in 2016. When HBO took over the broadcasting rights to Sesame Street, their contracts were not renewed.
But McGrath took the news graciously, expressing gratitude for 47 years of “working with phenomenal people” and for a whole career beyond Sesame Street of doing family concerts with major symphony orchestras.
“I’m really very happy to stay home with my wife and children a little bit more,” he said at Florida Supercon, an annual comic book and pop culture convention, later in 2016. “I’d be so greedy if I wanted five minutes more.”
McGrath married pre-school teacher Ann Logan Sperry in 1958 and they had five children.
“It’s a very different kind of fame,” McGrath reflected in the Television Academy interview about his association with Sesame Street.
He recalled a little boy in a store who came up to him and took his hand. At first, he thought he had been mistaken for the child’s father.
When he realised that the boy seemed to think they knew each other, McGrath asked: “Do you know my name?”
“Bob.”
“Do you know where I live?”
“Sesame Street.”
“Do you know any of my other friends on Sesame Street?”
“Yep,” the boy answered and promptly gave an example: “Oh, the number seven.” NYTIMES
