Robert Emmet McGrath, the first human character on the PBS series Sesame Street, has died at age 90. The family broke the news on Facebook, in a post in which they published his photo with McGrath's birth and death years, and with a message that reads:
Hello Facebook friends, the McGrath family has some sad news to share. Our father, Bob McGrath, passed away today. He died peacefully at home, surrounded by his family ❤️
McGrath has had a love of music since he was a child. He used to sing at home, while his mother accompanied him on the piano. He graduated in music from the University of Michigan in 1956. At the fraternity, he met David McConnell, who years later became the executive producer of Sesame Street. McConnell decided that Jim Henson's cute characters should be accompanied by the smile of his friend Bob. McGrath accompanied 74 million Americans who have at one time or another watched Sesame Street from 1969 to 2016; 47 years playing the character of Bob Johnson.
From 1960 to 1964 he accompanied Mitch Miller as a tenor on the live singing program Sing Along with Mitch. He also recorded several albums of Irish songs in Japanese, which gave him some popularity in Japan in the mid-1960s. He continued to pursue a career in television, in the shows Tell me the truth (1966) and I've got a secret (1967). In 2021, he made his final appearance, in the documentary film Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street.
