Emilio Delgado

At 81 years old, Emilio Delgado has this physical status:

Emilio Delgado (born May 8, 1940) is a Mexican American actor (film and television), voice actor, and singer best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner on the children's television series Sesame Street.

Delgado first appeared on Sesame Street in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed in 2017 as part of the Sesame Workshop's re-tooling of the series, though Sesame Workshop later announced that there will be talks to bring him back.

Delgado will continue to represent them at public functions following his departure.

In 1968, he began his career in Los Angeles.

Delgado and his partner Carole live in New York City.

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Life and career

Delgado was born in Calexico, California, to Emilio Delgado and Carmen Rodriguez Delgado on May 8, 1940.

He and his poor extended family were raised in his grandparents' house in Mexicali, Mexico. As a resident of the United States, he would walk daily to Calexico's public school. He started working odd jobs as a ten-year-old boy, as well as at his uncle's bicycle store at age 12. As a child, his family moved to Glendale, California. He played trombone and a jazz band in high school, as well as being a drum major in the marching band.

Delgado was "adamantly and morally opposed" to the Vietnam War, but he was enlisted in the California Army National Guard for six years, serving domestically. In 1965, a supply corporal was sent to the Watts riots in Los Angeles, where he was "astonished to see weekend warriors being granted live ammunition to use against other Americans."

Delgado began acting in 1968 after nine years of "attempting to knock doors down in Los Angeles to get in." He made his first Equity appearance in a summer stock play starring Martha Raye and later appeared in Cancion de la Raza, the first Mexican-American soap opera.

Delgado, a befriending actor who plays Sergei Tschernisch at Los Angeles' Inner City Repertory, learned of CalArts' latest theatre company, led by Provost Herb Blau. Delgado, who was still a professional actor as of 1970, praised Blau's techniques, insisting his avant-garde technique was "amazing."

He was the artistic director of the emerging Mexican-American Centre for Creative Arts, which taught Chicano high school and college students from the basement of the Euclid Heights Community Centre in East Los Angeles, as of 1970. "We are 100% positive in our direction," Delgado told the Los Angeles Times, and we are uncompromising in our hope that our children will grow up thinking of themselves as artists." Nothing is going to prevent us from obtaining our identity in American society."

Before being cast as a series regular in Angie's Garage in November 1970, Delgado appeared in an October 1970 episode Storefront Lawyers. The latest children's series was mainly aimed at Mexican-American children. He was billed as a singer-guitarist. He believed that Sesame Street producers discovered him through the series.

Delgado remained anonymous when discussing his work in both English and Spanish.

Luis and Raul Julia as Rafael were the first human characters to be cast on Sesame Street, as Rafael. Luis, a handyman and an aspiring writer, debuted on the show in 1971 alongside Julia. Julia and Julia then owned 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.

In its second season, Sesame Street generated a slew of organizations interested in the program's curriculum. During the season, the program attempted to teach Spanish to children whose mother tongue was not English. Jon Stone, a producer, told The Pittsburgh Journal that their plans were "a disaster." At best, it was tokenism at best, and condescension at worst." The show revived their hopes for the third season, including Puerto Ricans and Chicanos, as well as creating new Spanish segments. At the start of the season, seven new cast members were introduced, including Delgado, Panchito Gómez, Raul Julia, and Sonia Manzano. As of casting, Delgado was already enrolled at CalArts. Luis Delgado's character appeared in "The Fix-It Shop," a sewing service on Sesame Street, as well as Julia's Rafael. The character has been described as the "antithesis" of the Mexican and Latino stereotypes that dominated television at the time, as he was "an honest, upstanding, affable individual." Delgado said that the job would last one or two seasons.

Delgado appeared on television shows by at least 1972, when he appeared with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.

Delgado was named the head of the Children's Television Workshop's Bilingual Task Force and was sent around the country to consult with organizations. The attempts were likely to result in further improvements to content in season 4. In 1972, he would say that the series did not "teach Spanish; we teach in Spanish."

According to CalArts, Delgado is said to have appeared "the same role on US television longer than any other Mexican-American actor."

Luis fell in love with Maria, a performance by Sonia Manzano, during Sesame Street's 19th season, and married her. Throughout their respective runs of the show, Luis and Maria taught viewers about Hispanic culture and language. "To this day, there are people out there who want to believe that the Luis and Maria wedding episode in 1988 was real," Delgado says.

Delgado continued to appear at various pop culture conventions, many under the name "Humans of Sesame Street." In the TV special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, Delgado also relived Luis.

Delgado has appeared on live shows throughout his Sesame Street career, including performing the songs of Sesame Street and delighting thousands of children and their families.

On other shows, Delgado will appear in guest roles, but Sesame Street will not be cast. Rubin Castillo, the television series Lou Grant's national news editor, appeared on a regular basis.

Delgado appeared in Quixote Nuevo, which premiered in 2018 at CalShakes Theater in Berkeley, California, and then moved to Hartford Theatre and Houston's Alley Theatre production (2020) of Octavio Solis, a modern Chicano interpretation of Don Quixote.

He was a member of Inner City Rep. The Group Rep. and the LA Rep. Floating Home (HExTC), Boxing 2000 (Richard Maxwell), Dismiss All the Poets, Nilo Cruz's Intuitive Theatre of New Jersey (IATI), Night Over Toes The Performance of King Claudius (Ninets), 1999, The War Against The Crows was released on the octagon of Israel (IATI). In the role of King Claudius in Asolo Repertory Theatre's

His other television appearances include House of Cards, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He was a regular cast member of Lou Grant and the short-lived Born to the Wind. He has appeared on episodes of Police Story; Hawaii Five-O;; and Quincy, M.E.

Delgado's other artistic venture was to perform and record with the band Pink Martini. He appeared with the band at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in New York City. The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles took place in Woodinville, Washington, with the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, and the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon, was on display at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Crystal Ballroom, and the Oregon Zoo. He appears on their album Splendor in the Grass, in which he recorded the song "Sing," a duet with China Forbes.

Emilio and Carole were married in Bermuda on January 28, 1990. Lauren, Lauren of his current marriage, and Aram, who was born in a previous marriage.

Delgado's voice has been described as "gravelly and sonorous, with precise and deliberate."

Delgado was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in December 2020. On March 10, 2022, he died of the disease at his Manhattan, New York City home.

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