Kevin Clash "can go about the business of reclaiming his personal life," his lawyer says Accusers' lawyer vows to "appeal the decision and continue the fight" A judge ruled that the statute of limitations had run out Each accuser, all adult men, said they were courted and seduced by Clash as underage teens Three lawsuits alleging sex abuse by Kevin Clash, the puppeteer who gave Sesame Street’s Elmo his voice, were dismissed by a judge who ruled the accusers waited too long to sue. Clash, who was suspended and later resigned from his Sesame Street after the first allegations surfaced in November, “can go about the business of reclaiming his personal life and his professional standing,” his lawyer told CNN Monday. The lawyer who filed the lawsuits vowed to “appeal the decision and continue the fight to be a voice for victims.” A clerk with Manhattan District court confirmed that three lawsuits filed against Clash were dismissed on grounds that the statute of limitations had run out. Sesame Street had no immediate comment on the matter. Each accuser, all adult men, said they were courted and seduced by Clash when they were underage teenagers. Sheldon Stephens, now 24, was the first to the first to publicly claim he had a sexual relationship with Clash as a teen. Stephens called it an “adult consensual relationship” in November 2012, but filed a lawsuit in March 2013 alleging Clash threw a crystal meth sex party for him in 2004, when he was 16. Clash, who had provided the high-pitched voice of the iconic furry red Elmo since 1984, acknowledged a relationship between “two consenting adults” when Stephens’ story initially emerged, but he said it otherwise was a “false and defamatory allegation.” Stephens’ suit, which was filed in Pennsylvania, is still pending. “We have moved to dismiss,” Berger said. “I am a gay man,” Clash, 52, said in a statement in November. “I have never been ashamed of this or tried to hide it, but felt it was a personal and private matter.” Clash’s attorney, Michael Berger, said Monday his client “is pleased by the judge’s decision.” “As we have maintained all along, our goal has been to put these spurious claims behind him, so that Kevin can go about the business of reclaiming his personal life and his professional standing, which was recently recognized once again by the three Emmys he won last month,” Berger said. “The judge’s decision to dismiss and close the three lawsuits is an important step in that direction. Kevin is looking forward to a time in the near future when he can tell his story free of innuendo and false claims.” The accusers’ lawyer, Jeff Herman, called it “the first battle.” “The statute of limitations is an arbitrary timeline that silences victims,” Herman said. “We believe that the victims in this case are within the statute of limitations, but this ruling highlights the need for a window in New York to allow victims to have their day in court.” In November, Clash issued a written statement saying: “I am resigning from Sesame Workshop with a very heavy heart. I have loved every day of my 28 years working for this exceptional organization. Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work Sesame Street is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer. I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately.” Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, according to its website. CNN’s Carolyn Sung contributed to this report.
The work of the late Jim Henson lives on to this day in all shapes and sizes, and it's not difficult to see why. Through projects like "The Muppet Show," "The Dark Crystal," and "Sesame Street," among others, he and his creative team managed to captivate audiences of all ages and demographics, welcoming them into worlds previously unseen and providing them with valuable life lessons. As a result, numerous characters of his creation have become entertainment legends, not the least of which being everyone's favorite rock-hating fuzzy friend and not-so-late night TV host, Elmo. Introduced way back in 1980 for "Sesame Street" Season 11, it didn't take long for Elmo to catch on with young viewers. By the 1990s, he was a household name, appearing on "Sesame Street" regularly and becoming a merchandising machine whose likeness wound up on everything from t-shirts to the famous Tickle Me Elmo doll. He even got his own segment, "Elmo's World," in 1998, in addition to starring in the 1999 movie, "Elmo in Grouchland." These days he continues to appear on "Sesame Street" to teach kids about any number of topics, all while maintaining his newfound status as a meme icon. Of course, despite his backstory and fleshed-out personality, Elmo is just a Muppet, meaning there's a talented individual behind him that brings him to life every time he's shown on television. Here's who currently puppeteers and voices the fan-favorite character.
During his earliest appearances on "Sesame Street," Elmo didn't have one set actor behind him. The likes of Jerry Nelson, Brian Muehl, and Richard Hunt all took a crack at the character, though none of these early interpretations stuck around for long. That eventually presented Kevin Clash with the chance to try his hand (literally) at the role and give Elmo his signature voice, which almost instantaneously stuck (via PBS). He'd stick with the part from 1985 to 2012 before passing the torch to the current Elmo voice actor and puppeteer, Ryan Dillon. Dillon's Elmo tenure formally began in 2013, and as of 2022, he's still going strong as the character. However, he has been involved with "Sesame Street" for far longer, first becoming a part of the show in 2005 when he was just 17 years of age. As Dillon recalled in a Wired YouTube interview from 2017, he worked closely with Clash in the years leading up to his departure, affording him the chance to witness firsthand what went into an Elmo performance — experiences that went a long way in him eventually taking over for his mentor (via the Puppet Tears Podcast on YouTube). So long as his voice doesn't give out, or he doesn't give in to the pressure of portraying one of the world's most beloved children's television personalities, it stands to reason that Ryan Dillon will play Elmo for many more years to come.
 When Elmo first appeared on Sesame Street, the little red monster had a deep voice and rarely laughed. But then puppeteer Kevin Clash started working with the furry red creature. Clash, now the senior puppet coordinator and Muppet captain on Sesame Street, further developed Elmo's lovable personality and started providing his trademark voice. Over the past 25 years, Clash has transformed Elmo into one of the most recognizable characters on Sesame Street. Clash's story is told in the new documentary Being Elmo, which chronicles the puppeteer's journey from performing in backyard shows for his mother's home-based day care center, to working with Jim Henson and the rest of the Muppeteers, to becoming an integral part of the Sesame Street cast. Both Clash "and" Elmo join Fresh Air's Terry Gross for a conversation about Sesame Street, performing with Henson, and creating educational material for preschool-aged children.
The Origins Of Elmo Clash describes Elmo as "a 3-1/2-year-old with a lot of energy [who] loves hugs and kisses, and loves to laugh." Clash thought that a falsetto voice would work well for a toddler-aged puppet. "[When playing Elmo], I really go back to being me as a child growing up," Clash says. "I definitely pull back into my childhood and how I was as a child. When I started doing live shows, I would try the show out [on my mom's day care kids]. And if they crawled away, I knew it was something I should take out of the show." Clash was barely a preteen when he started crafting his own puppets from scraps of material he found at his parents' house. His first puppet was Mickey Mouse, followed shortly by his own creations, who often danced and sang like the people Clash saw on TV. "I grew up listening to Motown and watching commercials, so the live shows that I was doing [as a teenager], I really used all of that," he says. "All my puppets knew how to do The Bump and The Robot and all the dances that were out at the time. So I really was influenced by TV and music, and incorporated them into my live shows." In high school, Clash started sewing puppets for the children's series Romper Room. He also started performing on local shows in Baltimore and on the television show Captain Kangaroo. After meeting one of the original Muppeteers, he was invited to join the Sesame Street float during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. That's where he first met Jim Henson, The Muppets' visionary founder who died in 1990, and encountered the artistry of the puppets themselves. "When I actually saw a Sesame Street Muppet, the fur was so thick and rich," he says. "And touching the eyes — I could just find plastic spoons and stuff [for my homemade puppets] — their eyes were really hard and the plastic was really hard, and that meant it could last. It was really amazing how they made the mouths, how they sewed the mouths together, it really blew me away. ... You can get so much looking at it on TV, but up close and being able to really examine it, it was a dream come true for me."
Kevin Clash (center) started making puppets when he was a teenager in Baltimore. Photo courtesy of Submarine Deluxe/Being ElmoBeing Part Of A Child's Life Clash was asked to join the cast of Sesame Street as a puppeteer in 1984. Shortly thereafter, he started working with Elmo. The character began to catch on, and then became a hit. "The research department goes out and watches the show with kids, to see how they react to certain characters," he says. "And Elmo just hit the charts as far as them really connecting to the little red monster. And not only laughing with him and enjoying him — but also learning what they're supposed to be learning from the specific curriculum that was in the scripts with him." He says parents are sometimes a bit mystified that their children are so taken with the character — especially when their kids say "Elmo" before they say "Mom." "I get that a lot," he says. "It's like, 'Do you know my child's first word was Elmo?' But they understand it, too. It's nice to be a part of their life with their child."
They really don't look at me when they see Elmo. They run to Elmo because it's a friend of theirs that they've been talking to and communicating with and singing with for so many years. We've found that the delusion is not broken by seeing us puppeteers. Clash says that children who visit the set of Sesame Street will often tell Elmo if they've gotten a new pair of shoes or a new brother or sister. And occasionally, they'll open up about other parts of their lives. "The time that it really changed — when it really scared me — was when 9/11 happened," he says. "A lot of children were relocated from schools down in that area, and so they asked Sesame Street if some of the puppeteers and the characters could meet and greet these children. And [before Sept. 11] ... they used to come up and give Elmo a drawing of Elmo. And it was very scary to [now] see the children bringing up drawings of a tower and the planes hitting the towers. It's very hard for me, because I don't know what to say to them. I was there to entertain them and take them away from that." Clash says he told the children that the events of Sept. 11 were really scary, and that Elmo was there for them. "[And then I'd say], 'Give Elmo a hug and let's sing,' " he says. "I tried to pull them away from it as much as possible. Mommy and Daddy were there to explain a little bit more, and we're there to entertain and try and take them away from it."
Elmo and Clash, on the Sesame Street set in 2006. Richard Termine/Sesame WorkshopOn performing a Muppet character "When you're a performer, once you go into the character, you don't think about yourself. It's pretty interesting because you're watching a TV that's showing you what the camera's shooting, and sometimes you forget that you're performing at the same time — and you tend to laugh at what you're doing ... It's something that happens because you are creating something and you're thinking about that character." On Elmo's lovable personality "All of us try to get some type of catchphrase or something that the puppet does to get you into the character. Like Jim Henson with 'Hi-ho, Kermit the frog here' or Fozzie saying, 'Wokka wokka' or Miss Piggy saying, 'Moi.' The laugh for Elmo was the hook for me to get to where Elmo needed to be." On the Muppeteers remaining invisible "We have a lot of children that will visit [the set of Sesame Street]. And what we've found is that they really don't care about us, about the puppeteers. They've watched these characters on the show, on TV for so long, that they're really like close friends. It's interesting. They really don't look at me when they see Elmo. They run to Elmo because it's a friend of theirs that they've been talking to and communicating with and singing with for so many years. We've found that the delusion is not broken by seeing us puppeteers. They see the characters in front of them. ... I get humbled by it all the time. The things that they tell Elmo, the expression on their face when they see their friend." On Sesame Street characters "I love the simplicity of Sesame Street characters. I love that [Elmo is] just an orange nose and two eyes and no tongue — just a black mouth — and you just find that by just the tilt of the head or looking up, it says something. There's an emotion there." |
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