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Emilio Ernest Delgado was an American actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner, on the children's television series Sesame Street. He joined the cast of Sesame…
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Emilio Delgado Appears in Sesame Street
Emilio Delgado Appears in Sesame Street
Emilio Ernest Delgado (May 8, 1940 – March 10, 2022) was an American actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner, on the children's television series Sesame Street. He joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed, in late 2016, as part of Sesame Workshop's retooling of the series.
Emilio Ernest Delgado was an American actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner, on the children's television series Sesame Street. He joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed, in late 2016, as part of Sesame Workshop's retooling of the series.
Emilio Ernest Delgado (May 8, 1940 – March 10, 2022) was an American actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner, on the children's television series Sesame Street. He joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed, in late 2016, as part of Sesame Workshop's retooling of the series.
Following his departure, the workshop stated that Delgado would continue to represent them at public events. Delgado also appeared as Luis in the TV special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration. He began his professional career in Los Angeles in 1968. Delgado lived in New York City with his wife Carole Delgado.
Delgado was born in Calexico, California, to Emilio Delgado and Carmen Rodriguez Delgado on May 8, 1940.
He was raised in his grandparents' house in Mexicali, Mexico, with his extended family, during part of his childhood. As a citizen of the United States, he would walk daily to attend a public school in Calexico. He began working odd jobs as a ten-year-old and at his uncle's bicycle shop at age 12. His family moved to Glendale, California, when he was a teenager. During high school, three years of which he attended Glendale High School, he became president of the Thespian Club; he played the trombone in the jazz band and he was a drum major in the marching band. He played very low notes on the viola in the classical symphony orchestra, he also played acoustic guitar from his early teens throughout his lifetime, playing in folk groups during the 1960s and his 44 years on Sesame Street.
Delgado was "adamantly and morally opposed" to the Vietnam War, but enlisted in the California Army National Guard for six years, serving domestically. A supply corporal, Delgado was deployed to the Watts riots in Los Angeles, in 1965, where he was "astonished to see weekend warriors being issued live ammunition to use against other Americans."
Delgado began acting professionally in 1968, after nine years of "trying to knock doors down in Los Angeles to get in." That year, he received his first Equity job in a summer stock play starring Martha Raye, and later he was cast in the first Mexican-American soap opera, Cancion de la Raza.
Befriending actor Sergei Tschernisch at Los Angeles theatre company Inner City Repertory, Delgado learned of the new theatre program at CalArts, led by Provost Herb Blau. While already a professional actor as of his 1970 enrollment, Delgado praised Blau's methods, suggesting his avant-garde method was "amazing."
As of 1970, he was the artistic director of the new Mexican-American Centre of Creative Arts, which taught Chicano high school and college students from the basement of the Euclid Heights Community Centre in East Los Angeles. Delgado told the Los Angeles Times: "We are 100% positive in our approach, and we are uncompromising in our belief that our kids will come away thinking of themselves as artists. Nothing is going to stop us from attaining our identification in American society."
Delgado had a guest role in an October 1970 episode Storefront Lawyers before being cast as a series regular in Angie's Garage in November 1970. The new children's series focused on serving Mexican-American children. He was billed as a singer-guitarist. He speculated that producers discovered him through the series.
On Sesame Street, his character Luis, along with Raul Julia as Rafael, were the first human additions to the original cast. Luis was a handyman, and an aspiring writer, who debuted on the show in 1971 simultaneously with Julia. Together they ran the L&R Fix-It Shop until Julia left the show after one season, and Luis ran the Fix-It Shop alone from then on.
The enormous popularity of Sesame Street created a barrage of groups providing input on the curriculum in its second season. During the season, the program attempted to teach Spanish to children whose mother tongue was English. Producer Jon Stone told The Pittsburgh Press that their attempts were "a disaster. It was tokenism at best, and condescension at worst." For the third season, the show rebooted their efforts, adding Puerto Ricans and Chicanos, and creating new Spanish segments. Seven new cast members were added at the start of the season, including Delgado, Panchito Gómez, Raul Julia, and Sonia Manzano. Delgado was still enrolled at CalArts when he was cast. The character has been described as the "antithesis" of the Mexican and Latino stereotypes that proliferated television at the time, as he was "an honest, upstanding, hard-working, affable person." Delgado expected the role to last one or two seasons.
Delgado joined the series' live events by at least 1972, when he performed with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.
Delgado was named the coordinator of the Children's Television Workshop's Bilingual Task Force, and he was sent across the country to meet with groups. The efforts were to lead to further updates to content in season 4. He commented in 1972 that the series didn't "teach Spanish, we teach in Spanish."
Delgado is believed to have played "the same role on American television longer than any other Mexican-American actor," according to CalArts.
During Sesame Street's 19th season, first aired in 1988, Luis fell in love with Maria, played by Sonia Manzano, and married her. The characters Luis and Maria taught viewers about Hispanic culture and language throughout their shared run of the show. According to Delgado, "to this day, there are fans out there who want to believe that the Luis and Maria wedding episode in 1988 was real, but the fact of the matter is, it was just terrific acting."
Delgado later appeared at various pop culture conventions, often under the brand "Humans of Sesame Street". Delgado also reprised the role of Luis in the TV special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Delgado also performed in live shows throughout his Sesame Street career, singing the songs of Ses
Source: Emilio Delgado (CC BY-SA)
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Delgado recorded voice-over work in both English and Spanish.
