Kermit Love, the costume designer who helped puppeteer Jim Henson create Big Bird and other "SesameStreet" characters, has died. He was 91.
Love died from congestive heart failure Saturday in Poughkeepsie, near his home inStanfordville, Love's longtime partner, Christopher Lyall, told The New York Times.
In addition to his work with Henson, Love was a designer for some of ballet's most prominentchoreographers, including Twyla Tharp, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine.
Love also designed costumes and puppets for film and advertising, including the Snuggle bearfrom the fabric softener commercials.
"Sesame Street," public television's groundbreaking effort to use TV to teach preschoolers,premiered in 1969. Henson designed the original sketches of Big Bird, and Love then built the8-foot, 2-inch yellow-feathered costume.
It was Love's idea to add a few feathers designed to fall off, to create a more realisticfeel.
"The most important thing about puppets is that they must project their imagination, and thenthe audience must open their eyes and imagine," he told The New York Times in 1981.
Love also helped design costumes and puppets for Mr. Snuffleupagus, Oscar the Grouch andCookie Monster, among other characters. He even appeared on the show himself as Willy, the fantasyneighborhood's resident hot dog vendor.
But Love always insisted Henson's famous frog wasn't named for him, according to The New YorkTimes.
Caroll Spinney, who has played Big Bird since "Sesame Street" began, said he knew Love wasgravely ill but didn't know he'd died until Tuesday.
"Kermit was definitely a totally unique person," 74-year-old Spinney said. "He looked verymuch like Santa Claus but was a little bit more like the Grinch."
In addition to designing the Big Bird costume, he added, "Kermit really helped me withdramatic coaching, and he was wonderful at that."
Born in 1916, Love began making puppets for a federal Works Progress Administration theaterin 1935. He also designed costumes for Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. From there he began workingwith the New York City Ballet's costumer.
In his 2003 book, "The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): LessonsFrom a Life in Feathers," Spinney recalled that after a year on "Sesame Street," he felt hecouldn't live in New York on his salary.
Love told him to give it a month; the next week, Big Bird was on the cover of Time magazineand Spinney couldn't imagine leaving.
