Actor and singer Emilio Delgado, a warm and familiar presence in the lives of children for 45 years as owner of Luis’ Sesame Street repair shop, has died.
His wife, Carol Delgado, said he died from multiple myeloma of blood cancer at their New York home. He was 81 years old.
As Luis, Delgado, a Mexican-American, was to play a conventional, non-stereotypical Hispanic character at a time when there were few such portrayals on adult and children’s television.
“There weren’t really any images of real people,” Delgado said in a 2021 interview on the YouTube series Famous Words. “Most of the roles I took were either thugs or gang members.”
That changed with the advent of Sesame Street, where a diverse cast interacted with a diverse group of children, along with Jim Henson’s Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, and The Grover.
Delgado joined the show for its third season in 1971. He said the producers accepted his suggestion to add Spanish terms to the script.
“The first time I saw Big Bird walking, my line was ‘Big Bird,'” Delgado said in a 2021 interview. “But I didn’t say ‘Big Bird’, I said ‘paharo’.
Delgado was born in 1940 in Calexico, California, near the US-Mexico border, and grew up a few miles from Mexicali, Mexico.
From his home, he could hear music at night from a couple of beer gardens across the street.
“I remember falling asleep listening to the mariachi,” he said in a 2011 interview on Up Close with Patsy Smullin.
As a young man, he moved to Los Angeles to become an actor, but he was not so lucky. He received an unexpected call from the Sesame Street producers in New York.
After an interview with producer John Stone, who spoke to Delgado but did not ask for any audition, he got the job.
“He didn’t want actors,” Delgado said in a 2021 interview. “He wanted real people.”
He will remain on the show for 45 years – an integral part of the childhood of many generations of children, and for Hispanic children – a rare character who looks like them.
“His warmth and humor encouraged children to share a friendship that has been passed down from generation to generation,” Sesame Workshop said in a statement. “At the forefront of representation, Emilio is proud to claim ‘the record for the longest running Mexican American in a television series’.” We are so grateful that he shared his talents with us and with the world.”
Luis married another prominent Latina of the show, Maria Figueroa, played by Sonia Manzano, in a ceremony on the show in 1988.
“Luis and Maria were the first Hispanics I saw on TV,” Deadline TV journalist Rosie Cordero tweeted. “They were a huge part of my family. They paved the way.”
Delgado left the show when his contract was not renewed during a refit in 2016.
He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma at the end of 2020, but still made appearances and interviews in 2021 until his health began to decline.