Danny Seagren, ‘Sesame Street’ star and first live-action Spider-Man, has died

Daniel ‘Danny’ Seagren, a renown puppeteer and actor has died at the age of 81.

Seagren’s death was announced publicly via a digital obituary. Per the obituary, Seagren passed away on November 10. A cause of death was not shared. “Danny will be greatly missed by his family, friends and those throughout the community he loved living in,” his family wrote in the obituary.

Danny Seagren was an American actor, puppeteer and puppet maker for Jim Henson. Besides designing and creating several puppets, Seagren was perhaps best known for his time on Sesame Street, where he controlled the right arm of Bernie, and for several episodes donned the Big Bird costume.

Seagren was also the first-ever live-action Spider-Man, starring as the famed web slinger on the Spidey Super Stories segment of The Electric Company, the PBS series that starred Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman. For his role as Spider-Man, he worked closely with the superhero’s creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko to bring their vision to live despite a tight five-minute runtime per episode. Those episodes were narrated by Morgan Freeman.

Elsewhere during his career, also crafted puppets for series like Miss Peach, CBS kids show Captain Kangaroo and PBS’ Who’s Afraid Of Opera, which starred Joan Sutherland.

Per Danny Seagren’s family, a celebration of life will be held at a later date. Memorial donations are encouraged to be sent to the Entertainment Community Fund. He is survived by his longtime companion Kate Vereau, his brother Stephen, sister-in-law Jill and nephew Sean.

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