Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love (August 7, 1916 – June 21, 2008) was an American puppet maker, puppeteer, costume designer, and actor in children's television and on Broadway. He was best known as a designer and builder with the Muppets, in particular those on Sesame Street.
Early life
Love was born in Spring Lake, New Jersey on August 7, 1916, to Ernest and Alice Love. He was raised by his grandmother and great-grandmother following his mother's death when he was three years old. for a federal Works Progress Administration theater in Newark, New Jersey in 1935. He was also a costume designer for Broadway and other stage productions as in the 1930s, including the Mercury Theatre troupe with Orson Welles. Love also appeared on stage in a bit part as a student for the 1937 play Naught Naught 00.
Love worked with many of the great figures of mid-century Broadway and American ballet. He was the costumer for the Agnes de Mille ballet Rodeo (1942), for the Kurt Weill musical One Touch of Venus (1943), and for Merce Cunningham's The Wind Remains (1943) and Jerome Robbins's ballet Fancy Free (1944). For George Balanchine he designed, amongst other items, a marionette giant for Don Quixote (1965). Love's theatrical background had given him particular skill at handling full body-puppets and tailoring them to allow freedom for the performer's movements. From this, Love went on to build Oscar the Grouch and then Big Bird "Not unlike a tree shedding leaves in the Fall." He believed this made Big Bird appear more natural to young viewers. Love co-designed Cookie Monster and he designed Mr. Snuffleupagus.