List of celebrity guest stars on Sesame Street

This is a list of celebrity guest stars on the children's television series Sesame Street. An asterisk (*) indicates those celebrities who are known to have recited or sung the alphabet.

Contents

1 Actors 2 Celebrities 3 Political figures 4 Musicians 5 Singers 5.1 Who didn't sing on the show 6 Sports figures 7 Pre-celebrities 8 Celebrities who only lent their voices to the show 9 Celebrities as characters 10 Fictional characters 11 Celebrities who appeared in related segments, not within the show itself 12 Characters based on celebrities 13 See Also:

Actors

• Yul Brynner
• Carol Burnett, in an extremely brief appearance in the first episode
• Jim Carrey, in a skit about "Happy Feet", written for Steve Martin.
• Imogene Coca, in the special A Special Sesame Street Christmas; her primary function in the special was to be called an idiot by Ethel Merman
• Bill Cosby*
• Richard Dawson, in a parody of Family Feud called "Family Food" (where a Muppet family is asked to name the basic food groups).
• Ellen DeGeneres*
• Robert De Niro
• Danny DeVito
• Fran Drescher
• Henry Fonda, in the special A Special Sesame Street Christmas
• Jodie Foster
• James Gandolfini
• Mel Gibson, playing Hamlet to Elmo's Claudius
• Seth Green, season 35, running the Letter of the Month Club with Telly
• Whoopi Goldberg
• John Goodman
• David Alan Grier
• James Earl Jones*
• Burt Lancaster*
• Shari Lewis and Lambchop*
• Ethel Merman, in the special A Special Sesame Street Christmas; her primary function in the special was to call Imogene Coca an idiot
• Julianne Moore, season 35, with Count von Count in Far From Heaven parody Far From Seven
• Liam Neeson
• Rosie O'Donnell
• Mandy Patinkin
• Natalie Portman, dressed as an elephant and ran Hooper's store for one episode, while Alan was on vacation.
• Julia Roberts
• Tim Robbins, who asks to stay at The Furry Arms hotel.
• Fred Rogers
• Lea Salonga
• Susan Sarandon*
• Dick Smothers, one half of The Smothers Brothers, in the special A Special Sesame Street Christmas
• Patrick Stewart*
• Ben Stiller
• Marisa Tomei
• Leslie Uggams, in the special A Special Sesame Street Christmas, Uggams thinks lemonade is hot cocoa
• Robin Williams
• Noah Wyle

• Little Theatre for the Deaf, an acting troupe, who show Zoe how to sign the word "dancing"

Celebrities

• Maya Angelou
• Phil Donahue
• Harvey Fierstein, season 35, singing the parody song "Everything's Coming Up Noses"
• Jesse Jackson, who recited "I Am - Somebody"
• Al Roker
• Vonda Shephard, singing "Everybody's Song"
• Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert
• Barbara Walters

Political figures

• UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
• First Lady Laura Bush, in episode 4032, reading an original book called Wubba Wubba Wubba to Elmo, Big Bird, and some children.
• First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
• Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who recited the free verse poem "I Am - Somebody."
• Ralph Nader, who sang People in Your Neighborhood with Bob

Musicians

• James Galway
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Herbie Hancock
• Kronos Quartet
• Yo-Yo Ma
• Branford Marsalis
• Wynton Marsalis
• Seiji Ozawa
• Itzhak Perlman
• Joshua Redman, possibly in the 12th season, playing his violin in the episode where Telly debuts, and plays his tuba.
• Max Roach
• Isaac Stern

Singers

• Backstreet Boys
• Lea Salonga
• Tony Bennett
• Harry Belafonte*
• Rubén Blades
• Garth Brooks
• Cab Calloway
• Mary Chapin Carpenter*
• Aaron and Nick Carter, two-headed monster skit, aired with Baby Bear's little sibling's birth, second episode.
• Johnny Cash
• Tracy Chapman
• Ray Charles*
• Chubby Checker
• Destiny's Child, singing "New Way to Walk"
• The Dixie Chicks
• Judy Collins
• Bo Diddley
• Plácido Domingo
• Gloria Estefan
• Melissa Etheridge
• José Feliciano
• 14 Karat Soul
• The Four Tops
• Crystal Gayle
• Lena Horne, singing to Grover when he was shy
• Mahalia Jackson
• Michael Jackson, in the special A Special Sesame Street Christmas
• Wyclef Jean, season 36, rapping "Healthy Food" with Cookie Monster, for Healthy Habits for Life
• Waylon Jennings
• Billy Joel*
• Norah Jones, season 35, singing "Don’t Know Why 'Y' Didn't Come" with Elmo and the letter "Y"
• Wynonna Judd
• Eddie Kendricks (of The Temptations)
• Kid 'N Play
• B.B. King
• Gladys Knight and the Pips
• Patti LaBelle
• Queen Latifah
• Ladysmith Black Mambazo
• Little Richard, singing "Rubber Duckie"
• Ziggy Marley
• Martina McBride, season 35
• Don McLean
• Bobby McFerrin
• Menudo
• Anne Murray, in the special A Special Sesame Street Christmas; Murray's segment featured a magic egg nog container
• Holly Near
• Aaron Neville, singing "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon"
• *NSYNC
• The Pointer Sisters
• Lou Rawls
• Helen Reddy
• R.E.M., singing "Furry Happy Monsters"
• Little Richard
• Smokey Robinson
• Linda Ronstadt
• Diana Ross
• Buffy Sainte-Marie, who became a regular cast member
• Jill Scott, singing "We Are All Earthlings" [1] (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=15239)
• Pete Seeger
• Carly Simon
• Paul Simon
• Ruben Studdard, from American Idol, with Elmo
• Take 6
• James Taylor
• Randy Travis
• Stevie Wonder
• Joe Williams

Who didn't sing on the show

• Percy Sledge, in his 1970s segment, he greets the viewer, says that "we're going to count" from one to ten, and then does so multiple times.

Sports figures

• Arthur Ashe
• Michael Chang
• Julius Erving
• Peggy Fleming
• The Harlem Globetrotters
• Rosie Grier
• Bo Jackson
• Joe Namath
• Martina Navratilova
• New York Giants
• New York Knicks
• New York Mets
• David Robinson
• Isiah Thomas
• Joe Torre, season 36, then manager of the New York Yankees. Torre showed Telly a few pointers on how to catch a ball, as part of Healthy Habits for Life.
• Venus Williams, season 35, with Elmo
• Dave Winfield

Pre-celebrities

The following persons were not celebrities at the time they appeared on Sesame Street, but later became well-known:

• Actor Alan Arkin
• Actor Paul Benedict (as The Number Painter, from 1969-74)
• Dancer Savion Glover
• Actor Raúl Juliá as Rafael, 1971-1972 season
• Actor Charlotte Rae
• Actor-singer Holly Robinson-Peete, in the first episode, as 6-year-old "Sally"
• Guitarist Nile Rodgers played in the Sesame Street band in the 1970s
• Singer Luther Vandross, first season 1969

Celebrities who only lent their voices to the show

• Howard Morris, the voice of Jughead Jones
• Grace Slick, on Jefferson Airplane, for the Spies and Racecars pinball counting segment for the #2

Celebrities as characters

• Kenny Baker as R2-D2
• Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
• Arte Johnson (portraying his Nazi character from Laugh-In)

Fictional characters

• Jughead Jones
• The Pink Panther
• The Simpsons, including Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.

Celebrities who appeared in related segments, not within the show itself

In season 35, PBS stations aired clips of celebrities chatting about their favourite memories of the show. These were dubbed their "Sesame Street Moment".

• Jason Biggs
• Wayne Brady
• Amy Brenneman
• Harry Connick Jr.
• Harvey Fierstein
• Dennis Franz
• Kelsey Grammer
• Seth Green
• Norah Jones
• Martina McBride
• Julianne Moore
• Doris Roberts
• Ruben Studdard
• Venus Williams

Characters based on celebrities

• Polly Darton, based on Dolly Parton
• Dr. Feel, based on Dr. Phil, season 35
• Placido Flamingo, based on Placido Domingo
• Joe Hundred Guy, based on Joe Millionaire, season 35
• Pat Playjacks, based on Pat Sajak
• Bennett Snerf, based on Bennett Cerf (along with a Muppet version of Arlene Francis, on a parody of "What's My Line?"), season 1
• Bruce Springbean, based on Bruce Springsteen
• Johnny Trash, based on Johnny Cash
• TriangleBob Trianglepants, based on Spongebob Squarepants, season 35
• Babwa Wawa, based on Barbara Walters
• H. Ross Parrot, based on Ross Perot

See Also:

Human characters on Sesame Street