Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
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.
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 Sing Along with Mitch for five seasons from 1959 to 1964. He was 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 and other folksongs and ballads sung in Japanese. 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 shows To Tell The Truth in 1966 and 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. McGrath has been a national cast member of Telemiracle for 35 of the 36 years of the annual Saskatchewan Telethon.
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.
He is a strict Vegan Vegetarian.
In 1995, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
McGrath's "Sing Me A Story" was nominated for the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Children's Album of the year.
On April 10, 2010, he was the first recipient of the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club Lifetime Achievement Award. McGrath also served as master of ceremonies at the Glee Club's 150th Anniversary Celebration weekend.