{"id":148384,"date":"2022-12-05T03:46:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T03:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/bob-mcgrath-longtime-sesame-street-star-dies-at-90\/"},"modified":"2022-12-05T03:46:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T03:46:12","slug":"bob-mcgrath-longtime-sesame-street-star-dies-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/bob-mcgrath-longtime-sesame-street-star-dies-at-90\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob McGrath, Longtime ‘Sesame Street’ Star, Dies at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bob McGrath, who played the sweater-clad neighborhood music teacher and general advice-giver on \u201cSesame Street\u201d for almost half a century, died at his home in New Jersey on Sunday morning. He was 90.<\/p>\n
Mr. McGrath’s daughter Cathlin McGrath confirmed his death by email on Sunday. she said McGrath died from complications after a stroke. She said that the night before Mr. McGrath passed, his family had decorated his room for Christmas, and sung and danced around him. \u201cWe just knew that he wanted to go the way he lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. McGrath was n’t interested particularly when an old Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brother stopped him one night to tell him about his new project, a 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSesame Street\u201d had its premiere in November 1969, with Mr. 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 \u201cPeople in Your Neighborhood\u201d (the butcher, the baker, the lifeguard), discussing everyday concerns with young humans and Muppets, or taking a day trip to Grouchytown with Oscar the Grouch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Viewers were outraged when Mr. McGrath and two other longtime cast members \u2014 Emilio Delgado, who played Luis, and Roscoe Orman, who played Gordon \u2014 were fired in 2016. When HBO took over the broadcasting rights to \u201cSesame Street,\u201d their contracts were not renewed.<\/p>\n
But Mr. McGrath took the news graciously, expressing gratitude for 47 years of \u201cworking with phenomenal people\u201d and for a whole career beyond \u201cSesame Street\u201d of doing family concerts with major symphony orchestras.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m really very happy to stay home with my wife and children a little bit more,\u201d he said at Florida Supercon, an annual comic book and pop culture convention, later in 2016. \u201cI’d be so greedy if I wanted five minutes more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert Emmett McGrath was born on June 13, 1932, in Ottawa, Ill., about 80 miles southwest of Chicago. He was the youngest of five children of Edmund Thomas McGrath, a farmer, and Flora Agnes (Halligan) McGrath.<\/p>\n
Robert’s mother, who sang and played the piano, recognized his talent by the time he was 5. He was soon entering and winning competitions in Chicago and appearing on radio. He did musical plays and studied privately but, as a practical matter, intended to study engineering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But he was invited to attend a music camp outside Chicago the summer after his high school graduation. Teachers there encouraged him to change his plans, and he \u201cdid an about-face,\u201d he remembered in a 2004 video interview for the Television Academy Foundation.<\/p>\n
He majored in voice at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1954. He spent the next two years in the Army, mostly in Stuttgart, Germany, where he worked with the Seventh Army Symphony. Then he went to New York, where he received a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music.<\/p>\n
He took a job with St. David’s, a private boys’ school in Manhattan. Freelance singing assignments, obtained through a vocal contractor, paid the bills until 1961, when \u201cSing Along With Mitch\u201d came along. He was one of 25 male singers who appeared every week on that show, on NBC, performing traditional favorites like \u201cHome on the Range,\u201d \u201cThe Yellow Rose of Texas,\u201d \u201cIt’s a Long Way to Tipperary\u201d and \u201cI’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.\u201d<\/p>\n
As St. Patrick’s Day approached, the program’s host and producer, Mitch Miller, asked Mr. McGrath if he knew the song “Mother Machree.” He was so impressed with Mr. McGrath’s rendition and his light lyric tenor \u2014 he had been singing the sentimental Irish American number since he was a little boy \u2014 that he doubled his salary and made him the show’s featured male soloist.<\/p>\n
After \u201cSing Along With Mitch\u201d ended in 1964, the cast played Las Vegas and did a 30-stop tour in Japan. That led to an unusual chapter in Mr. McGrath’s career: teenage idol.<\/p>\n
Schoolgirls chanted his name at concerts and organized fan clubs. Their demand brought him back to Japan nine times over the next three years, and he recorded nine albums there, singing in both English and Japanese. His repertoire included Japanese folk ballads on which he was accompanied by a shakuhachi, or bamboo flute. Back home, he amused American television viewers by singing \u201cDanny Boy\u201d in Japanese.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
When \u201cSesame Street\u201d began, it led to a very different collection of albums for Mr. McGrath, with names like \u201cSing Along With Bob\u201d and \u201cSongs and Games for Toddlers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also learned American Sign Language, which he used regularly on camera with Linda Bove, a cast member who was born deaf.<\/p>\n
Asked about important memories of his years on the series, Mr. McGrath often named the 1983 episode devoted to children’s, adults’ and Muppets’ reactions to the death of Will Lee, who had played Mr. Hooper on the show for 13 years. Another favorite was the holiday special \u201cChristmas Eve on Sesame Street\u201d (1978), particularly the Bert and Ernie segment inspired by the O. Henry story \u201cThe Gift of the Magi.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1958, Mr. McGrath married Ann Logan Sperry, a preschool teacher whom he met on his first day in New York City. They had five children. <\/p>\n
He is survived by Ms. McGrath, who is 89, and their five children, Liam McGrath, Robert McGrath, Alison McGrath Osder, Lily McGrath and Cathlin McGrath, as well as eight grandchildren. He is also survived by an elder sister, Eileen Strobel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a very different kind of fame,\u201d Mr. McGrath reflected in the Television Academy interview about his association with \u201cSesame Street.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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 realized that the boy seemed to think they knew each other, Mr. McGrath asked, \u201cDo you know my name?\u201d \u201cBob.\u201d \u201cDo you know where I live?\u201d \u201cSesame Street.\u201d \u201cDo you know any of my other friends on Sesame Street?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep,\u201d the boy answered and promptly gave an example: \u201cOh, the number 7.\u201d<\/p>\n
Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bob McGrath, who played the sweater-clad neighborhood music teacher and general advice-giver on \u201cSesame Street\u201d for almost half a century, died at his home in New Jersey on Sunday morning. He was 90. Mr. McGrath’s daughter Cathlin McGrath confirmed his death by email on Sunday. she said McGrath died from complications after a stroke. She …<\/p>\n