Sesame Street actor Emilio Delgado has died at the age of 81.
The actor was best known for playing Luis in the beloved children’s TV programme.
Delgado’s wife, Carol, told TMZ that the actor died on Thursday surrounded by family at his home in New York City.
It’s said that Delgado was in hospice care after being diagnosed with the blood cancer multiple myeloma in December 2020.
Carol said her husband was still a working actor until the Covid pandemic, and played the lead in theatre show Quixote Nuevo, which had a three-city run before being shut down during the global health crisis.
He even completed voiceover work in January 2022.
Delgado’s most-known work was on Sesame Street, in which he played Fix-It Shop owner Luis for an incredible 40 years. He took a short hiatus from the children’s programme in the late 80s before returning within a year.
Tributes have started pouring in for the Mexican-American actor, with one reading on Twitter: ‘We here at the Daily Muppet are saddened to report the death of Emilio Delgado, who played the role of Luis on Sesame Street for almost 50 years. Rest in peace, your contributions will not be forgotten.’
In 2015, Delgado opened up about the unwavering love for Sesame Street, and told CNN: ‘In the whole time that I have been on the show, in the whole time of the Sesame Street’s existence, the only thing that we have tried to do is create a window to the world out there – all of the beautiful things in the world, so that the children can be exposed to other things besides what they know themselves – that are still human beings, and that we can all live together.’
He added: ‘We are all living in the same neighborhood, different people from different backgrounds, different ethnicities – speaking different languages. It was the perfect ideal for what America could be.’
Delgado’s other credits included a recurring role on Lou Grant and the short-lived Born to the Wind. He also made appearances on Police Story, Hawaii Five-O, Quincy, M.E., House of Cards, Law & Order and its spinoffs, The Michael J. Fox Show, and The Get Down.
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