Bob McGrath

Bob McGrath
McGrath posing backstage before a Sesame Place concert in 2007
Born	Robert Emmet McGrath (1932-06-13) June 13, 1932 (age 84) Ottawa, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Occupation	Actor, singer
Years active	1959–present
Spouse(s)	Ann Sperry (1958–present)

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

Along with Susan, played by Loretta Long, Bob had been one of the two longest-lasting human characters on the series since the show's debut. A Noggin segment proclaimed the four decades of Bob when promoting Sesame Street on that network. In July 2016, Sesame Workshop announced that McGrath would not return to the show for its 47th season because they would be re-tooling the series, but they did say that McGrath would continue to represent them at public events. Sesame Workshop later announced that there'd be talks to bring him back.

McGrath has said that his two favorite moments on Sesame Street were Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (a 1978 Christmas special that included a pastiche of "The Gift of the Magi"), and the 1983 sequence that candidly addressed the death of longtime character Mr. Hooper, played by his good friend Will Lee who had died the previous year.

McGrath was born in Ottawa, Illinois on June 13, 1932.

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 and of the fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta, where during fraternity events, he washed dishes while fraternity brother David Connell waited tables; a connection which Connell would use when casting began for Sesame Street. He worked with Mitch Miller and was the featured tenor on Miller's NBC-TV television singalong series Sing Along with Mitch for five seasons from 1959 to 1964. He was a singer on the Walt Kelly album Songs of the Pogo.