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Bob McGrath
Bob McGrath poses backstage before a Sesame Place concert
Born	Robert Emmet McGrath June 13, 1932 (1932-06-13) (age 77) Ottawa, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Singer
Years active	1959–present

Robert Emmet "Bob" McGrath (born June 13, 1932) is an American singer and actor best known for playing the human character Bob on Sesame Street. He was born in Ottawa, Illinois. McGrath was named for Irish patriot Robert Emmet.

Along with Susan, played by Loretta Long, Bob has been one of the two longest lasting human characters on the series. A Noggin segment proclaimed the four decades of Bob when promoting Sesame Street on that network.

McGrath has said that his two favorite moments on Sesame Street were a spoof of The Gift of the Magi on a Christmas special, and the 1983 sequence that candidly addressed the death of longtime character Mr. Hooper, played by actor Will Lee who had died the previous year.^[1]

Bob's character had a long-lost brother named Minneapolis, an Indiana Jones-like action hero (played by Jeff Goldblum) who took Bob on a search for the Golden Cabbage of Snuffertiti with Big Bird and Snuffleupagus in 1990.

Early career

McGrath is a 1954 graduate of the University of Michigan's School of Music. While attending Michigan, he was a member of the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club. He worked with Mitch Miller and was the featured tenor on Miller's television singalong series for five seasons, from 1959-1964. He was notably a singer on the Walt Kelly album, "Songs of the Pogo".

In the mid-1960s, McGrath became a well-known recording artist in Japan, releasing a series of successful albums of Irish songs and ballads sung in Japanese.^[2][3] McGrath's Japanese fanbase refers to him as Bobu Magurasu (ボブ・マグラス). This aspect of his career was the basis of his secret when he appeared on the game show "I've Got A Secret" (February 20, 1967).

Other accomplishments

For over 30 years, McGrath has been a regular fixture on Telemiracle, a Saskatchewan telethon. On March 3, 2006 McGrath was awarded the Commemorative Medal for the Centennial of Saskatchewan for this work by the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, Lynda Haverstock.^[4]

He wrote many children's books including Uh Oh! Gotta Go! and OOPS! Excuse Me Please!. He and his wife Ann have five children, six granddaughters and two grandsons. The couple reside in Teaneck, New Jersey.^[2][3]

In 1995, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

References

External links

• Bob McGrath's official website
• Bob McGrath at the Internet Movie Database
• Bob McGrath Archive of American Television Interview