Hull, Rod

▪ 2000

      British entertainer and puppeteer whose hand-puppet sidekick, Emu, a blue-and-yellow flightless bird, delighted children as well as adult fans with his unpredictable, mischievous, and often viciously aggressive behaviour, over which the hapless Hull apparently had no control; Emu hatched as a character while Hull was appearing on an Australian breakfast television program in the late 1960s, and back in the U.K. they appeared together on variety shows and on a succession of their own shows, notably, Rod Hull and Emu, EBC, Emu's World, Emu's Wide World, and EMU-TV (b. Aug. 13, 1935, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, Eng.—d. March 17, 1999, Winchelsea, East Sussex, Eng.).

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