CAROLL SPINNEY, the big-hearted Muppeteer who climbed inside a claustrophobic feathered costume to play the beloved “Sesame Street” character Big Bird for almost a half-century, died Sunday, Sesame Workshop announced. He was 85.

Spinney, who also operated and voiced Oscar, Big Bird’s grumpy trash can-dwelling neighbor, before retiring from the iconic kids program in October 2018, died at his home in Connecticut after “living with dystonia for some time.”

Spinney collected five Daytime Emmy Awards for his contributions to “Sesame Street” and received a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2006, entrancing hundreds of millions of kids along the way.

“He managed to learn to speak directly to the hearts of probably anyone from 2-year-olds to 5-, 6-, 7-year-olds — and to grown-ups, as a matter of fact,” fellow “Sesame Street” veteran Bob McGrath said in the 2015 documentary “I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story.”

(SD-Agencies)