It’s a sad day on everyone’s favorite street. Emilio Delgado, best known as Luis onSesame Street, has passed away at 81. This news comes to us fromTMZ.
Delgadopassed awayon Thursday surrounded by his family in his home in New York City. TMZ also reports that Delgado had been in hospice care. The beloved actor was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (a type of blood cancer that affects plasma cells) in December 2020.
Born on May 4th, 1940 in Calexico, California; Delgado started his acting career in 1968. His first roles were in various stage productions before he finally landed a role in the first Mexican-American soap opera,Cancion de la Raza. In 1970, he landed a role in the children’s showAngie’s Garage. Delgado would later on state that it was that particular role that caught the eyes of the producers ofSesame Street.
At this stage ofSesame Street’slife, the crew was well into their second season. One of the new focuses of the show was to branch out to children who were beginning to learn English as a second language. They had introduced a new character, Miguel (played by Jamie Sánchez), who was the show’s first Latino resident. Sadly, the team missed its mark. Producer John Stone elaborated on the misstep to thePittsburgh Pressin 1971.
“We tried teaching Spanish to English-speaking kids last year, and it was a disaster. It was tokenism at best, and condescension at worst.”
In an attempt to fix this, for the third season the Sesame Street team did an overhaul of their efforts. They shot brand new Spanish segments and introduced seven new cast members, including Panchito Gómez, Sonia Manzano, Raúl Juliá, and Emilio Delgado. Delgado was cast as Luis, owner of “The Fix-It Shop”, which took care of all repair work on Sesame Street. The shop was run by both Luis and Rafael (Raúl Juliá). Rafael ended up leaving the show after season 3, leaving Luis as the full owner. Kind, hard working, and honest, Luis would end up being a positive role model and representation of Latin Americans for children across the country.
While Delgado initially expected his role to only last one or two seasons, his involvement in the show only grew as time passed. By season 4, he was named the coordinator of the Children’s Television Workshop’s Bilingual Task Force and visited various groups to focus on updates to the show. Delgado hints at the direction of these updates in theSan Antonio Expressin 1972.
“There will be a lot more bilingual and bicultural things added to the show. And there will be some changes in the cast. It will be smaller.”
Still on the Street after All these Years
As Sesame Street danced its way into the 80s, there were changes and updates to the character of Luis. He would hire a new coworker to run the “Fix-it Shop”, Maria (Sonia Manzan), in season 7. This relationship would blossom into romance, the two characters married in season 19, 1988. In 1989, the birth of their daughter, Gabi, would close the 20th season ofSesame Street.
In 2019, Luis was phased out of the show and Delgado was retired from the cast. Though he would occasionally make appearances relating to the show, such asSesame Street’s50th Anniversary Celebration. According to CalArts, Delgado is believed to have played “the same role on US television longer than any other Mexican-American actor”. Delgado reflected on his role and career toCalArtsin 2014.
“It always amazes me when I look back, that I have been a professional working actor since 1968, making a living doing what I love.”
