The wife of the actor, best known for playing Fix-it Shop owner Luis Rodriguez on the children's TV show, confirms he died surrounded by family at his home in NYC.
- March 11, 2022
AceShowbiz - Emilio Delgado, an actor who starred on "Sesame Street" for 45 years, has passed away. He died on Thursday, March 10 in New York after a battle with cancer, his wife Carole Delgado has confirmed. He was 81 years old.
Carole told TMZ that Emilio had recently been in hospice care after he was diagnosed with the blood cancer multiple myeloma in December 2020. He was surrounded by family at his home in NYC at the time of his passing.
In a statement to the press, Robert Attermann, CEO of A3 Artists Agency, said, "We are saddened by the news of Emilio's passing." He added, "Emilio was an immense talent who brought so much joy and smiles to his fans. He will be missed by many and we know his legacy will live on."
Emilio was best recognized for playing Fix-it Shop owner Luis Rodriguez on "Sesame Street". He joined the cast of the show in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed in 2016, as part of Sesame Workshop's re-tooling of the series.
In an interview with The Houston Chronicle published in 2020, Emilio reflected on the importance of his "Sesame Street" role amid the lack of Latino representation onscreen and stereotypical portrayals. "I'd been trying all my professional life to be somewhere I can change that, whether I was talking about it or trying to get into a project that showed Latinos in a good light," he said at the time. "That's why 'Sesame Street' was such a good thing. For the first time on television, they showed Latinos as real human beings."
"We weren't dope addicts," he continued. "We weren't maids or prostitutes, which were the way we were being shown in television in film. Here, on 'Sesame Street', there were different people who spoke different languages and ate interesting foods, and they were all Americans."
Following his departure, the workshop stated that Emilio would continue to represent them at public events. He also appeared as Luis in the TV special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.
According to his wife, Emilio was still working as an actor right up until the pandemic. He played the lead in "Quixote Nuevo", a theater production that had a 3-city run before things were shut down. He also recently did some voiceover work in January of this year.
