{"id":1546,"date":"2022-03-11T15:37:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?p=1546"},"modified":"2022-03-11T15:37:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:37:55","slug":"emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html","title":{"rendered":"Emilio Delgado, Who Played Luis on ‘Sesame Street’ For 40 Years, Dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emilio Delgado, the actor best known and beloved as Luis on \u201cSesame Street,\u201d has died at 81-years-old. According to his wife, Carol, Delgado passed away on Thursday, surrounded by family at his home in New York City. He was recently in hospice care after being diagnosed with Multiple myeloma in December 2020. His wife also said that Delgado worked right up until the pandemic, with a lead role in \u201cQuixote Nuevo,\u201d a theater production that had a three-city run before lockdown. Delgado also did some voiceover work in January of this year.<\/p>\n

The beloved Mexican-American actor was a forerunner in children\u2019s television, playing Luis, the \u2018Fix-It Shop\u2019 owner, for a total of 40 years on \u201cSesame Street.\u201d He took a brief break from the show in the late 80s but returned within a year. He also performed in live theater throughout his career, including some \u201cSesame Street\u201d stage productions, and has appeared at various conventions over the years.<\/p>\n

\"delgado\"<\/a>
Zach Hyman\/Sesame Workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Delgado had cited the PBS show\u2019s importance as a cultural touchstone in the way people of color were depicted on TV. He told the Houston Chronicle in 2020, \u201cFor the first time on television, they showed Latinos as real human beings. We weren\u2019t dope addicts. We weren\u2019t maids or prostitutes, which was how we were being shown in television and film. Here, on \u2018Sesame Street,\u2019 there were different people who spoke different languages and ate interesting foods, and they were all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond \u201cSesame Street,\u201d Delgado appeared in such series as \u201cLaw & Order\u201d and early in his career in the dramas \u201cLou Grant\u201d and \u201cFalcon Crest.\u201d He also co-starred in the 1975 TV movie \u201cI Will Fight No More Forever,\u201d a true story about Nez Perce Native American leader Chief Joseph.<\/p>\n

Born May 8, 1940, in Calexico, California, Delgado spent his early childhood living with his grandparents just across the border in Mexicali, Mexico. From his home, he could hear music into the night from a pair of beer gardens across the street. \u201cI remember going to sleep to the sound of mariachis,\u201d he said in a 2011 interview on the public television series, \u201cUp Close with Patsy Smullin.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was enchanted and decided to become a performer, singing whenever possible and appearing in school plays with the full support of his proud parents. He moved to Los Angeles to become an actor and had little luck as a young man. He received a call out of the blue from the producers of \u201cSesame Street\u201d in New York.<\/p>\n

Delgado joined\u00a0Sesame Street<\/em>\u00a0as Luis in 1971 and, except for his brief hiatus in 1988, remained on the show until 2016. He continued appearing with the show\u2019s cast at public events and returned for\u00a0Sesame Street\u2019s 50th Anniversary Celebration<\/em>\u00a0in 2019. Fans and loved ones will remember Delgado not only as an actor but as a pioneer. He led the way for Mexican-American actors to fulfill the non-stereotypical roles. He also helped millions of children understand compassion, kindness, and friendship lessons. Delgado is survived by his wife, Carol, and two children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emilio Delgado, the actor best known and beloved as Luis on \u201cSesame Street,\u201d has died at 81-years-old. According to his wife, Carol, Delgado passed away on Thursday, surrounded by family at his home in New York City. He was recently in hospice care after being diagnosed with Multiple myeloma in December 2020. His wife also…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":1555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actor"],"yoast_head":"\nEmilio Delgado, Who Played Luis on 'Sesame Street' For 40 Years, Dies at 81<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Emilio Delgado, also known as Luis on "Sesame Street," died on Thursday at 81-years-old. According to his wife, he was surrounded by family.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Emilio Delgado, Who Played Luis on 'Sesame Street' For 40 Years, Dies at 81\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Emilio Delgado, also known as Luis on "Sesame Street," died on Thursday at 81-years-old. According to his wife, he was surrounded by family.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Where Hope Lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-11T15:37:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2022\/03\/Capture99.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"649\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren McKeithen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Emilio Delgado, Who Played Luis on 'Sesame Street' For 40 Years, Dies at 81","description":"Emilio Delgado, also known as Luis on \"Sesame Street,\" died on Thursday at 81-years-old. According to his wife, he was surrounded by family.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Emilio Delgado, Who Played Luis on 'Sesame Street' For 40 Years, Dies at 81","og_description":"Emilio Delgado, also known as Luis on \"Sesame Street,\" died on Thursday at 81-years-old. According to his wife, he was surrounded by family.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html","og_site_name":"Where Hope Lives","article_published_time":"2022-03-11T15:37:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":820,"height":649,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2022\/03\/Capture99.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lauren McKeithen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html","name":"Emilio Delgado, Who Played Luis on 'Sesame Street' For 40 Years, Dies at 81","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2022\/03\/Capture99.png","datePublished":"2022-03-11T15:37:55+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-11T15:37:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a"},"description":"Emilio Delgado, also known as Luis on \"Sesame Street,\" died on Thursday at 81-years-old. According to his wife, he was surrounded by family.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2022\/03\/Capture99.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/399\/2022\/03\/Capture99.png","width":820,"height":649,"caption":"Credit: PBS\/Courtesy Everett Collection"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2022\/03\/emilio-delgado-who-played-luis-on-sesame-street-for-40-years-dies-at-81.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Emilio Delgado, Who Played Luis on ‘Sesame Street’ For 40 Years, Dies at 81"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/","name":"Where Hope Lives","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Tributes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a","name":"lmckeithen","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/author\/lmckeithen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1546"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}