Ernie Sabella
Encyclopedia
Ernest "Ernie" Sabella is an American
actor
, who is best known for his role as the official voice of Pumbaa from the The Lion King
.
in Thornwood, New York. Sabella then went on to graduate from the University of Miami
, where he studied at the Department of Theatre Arts and performed at the university's highly-regarded Jerry Herman Ring Theatre
.
His stage credits include The Robber Bridegroom
(1978), Little Johnny Jones (1982), Guys and Dolls (1992), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
(1996), Chicago
(1996), Man of La Mancha
(2002, as Sancho Panza
) and Sweet Charity
(2005).
Film credits include Quiz Show
(1994) as the car salesman, In & Out
(1997) as Aldo Hooper, Disney
's The Lion King
(1994) and multiple sequels and spin-offs as Pumbaa
. He also has worked with Nathan Lane
, who had voiced Timon, in Guys and Dolls, Mouse Hunt, The Producers
(in a deleted scene) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
. In the latter production, Sabella portrayed Marcus Lycus while Lane played Pseudolus.
On television, Sabella portrayed apartment manager Lou Donatelli in the Jason Bateman
comedy It's Your Move
(1984-85). He played store owner and landlord Donald Twinkacetti on Perfect Strangers
(1986–1987). He also played Leo in the another short-lived situation comedy
starring Nathan Lane
, Encore! Encore!
(1998–1999). Sabella also had a five-episode stint on Saved by the Bell
as Leon Carosi, an uptight resort manager who employed the main cast's characters. Leah Remini
was featured as his daughter. His other recurring roles include the lazy teacher Mr. Petrachelli on That's So Raven
, the floundering attorney Harland Bassett on The Practice
, and characters on Hill Street Blues
and Newhart
. In the Quantum Leap episode "Catch a Falling Star", he played the dual role of Manny, a stage actor, and Sancho Panza
, Manny's character in a touring production of Man of La Mancha. Sabella had a brief but memorable appearance as a naked man on a subway train in a 1992 episode of Seinfeld
entitled, appropriately, "The Subway". He also starred in a series of television commercials for NyQuil
cold medicine in 1994, and was recently seen in a Mastercard
commercial (2007). He also did work as the guy from Lynx in 2003.
Sabella co-starred as Sidney Bernstein in the Broadway
musical comedy Curtains
, which opened officially on March 22, 2007 and ran until June 29, 2008.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, who is best known for his role as the official voice of Pumbaa from the The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
.
Life and career
Born in Westchester, New York, Sabella graduated from Westlake High SchoolWestlake High School (New York)
Westlake High School is located at 825 Westlake Drive in Thornwood, New York. Westlake is the High School serving the Mount Pleasant Central School District. The hamlets of Hawthorne and Thornwood are inclusive in the Mount Pleasant CSD. The hamlet of Valhalla and the village of Pleasantville...
in Thornwood, New York. Sabella then went on to graduate from the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, where he studied at the Department of Theatre Arts and performed at the university's highly-regarded Jerry Herman Ring Theatre
Jerry Herman Ring Theatre
The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, located on the campus of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, United States, is the student theatre of the University of Miami....
.
His stage credits include The Robber Bridegroom
The Robber Bridegroom (musical)
The Robber Bridegroom is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and music by Robert Waldman. The story is based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty of the same name, with a Robin Hood-like hero; the adaptation placed it in a late 18th century American setting...
(1978), Little Johnny Jones (1982), Guys and Dolls (1992), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart....
(1996), Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
(1996), Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...
(2002, as Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
) and Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
(2005).
Film credits include Quiz Show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
(1994) as the car salesman, In & Out
In & Out
In & Out is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Oz and starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Matt Dillon, Tom Selleck, Debbie Reynolds, Bob Newhart, and Wilford Brimley. The screenplay was written by screenwriter Paul Rudnick...
(1997) as Aldo Hooper, Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
's The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
(1994) and multiple sequels and spin-offs as Pumbaa
Timon and Pumbaa
Timon and Pumbaa are an animated meerkat and warthog duo introduced in Disney's popular 1994 animated film The Lion King. Timon was portrayed through his many appearances by Nathan Lane , Max Casella , Kevin Schon , Quinton Flynn Timon and Pumbaa are an animated meerkat and warthog duo introduced...
. He also has worked with Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
, who had voiced Timon, in Guys and Dolls, Mouse Hunt, The Producers
The Producers (2005 film)
# "Overture" - Orchestra# "Opening Night" - Opening Nighters# "We Can Do It" - Max and Leo# "I Wanna Be a Producer" - Leo, Accountants, Mr. Marks and Dancing Chorus Girls# "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop" - Franz, Max, and Leo...
(in a deleted scene) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart....
. In the latter production, Sabella portrayed Marcus Lycus while Lane played Pseudolus.
On television, Sabella portrayed apartment manager Lou Donatelli in the Jason Bateman
Jason Bateman
Jason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
comedy It's Your Move
It's Your Move
It's Your Move is an American sitcom starring Jason Bateman, Tricia Cast, Caren Kaye, Ernie Sabella, David Garrison, and Garrett Morris. The show originally aired on NBC from 1984 to 1985.-Premise:...
(1984-85). He played store owner and landlord Donald Twinkacetti on Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...
(1986–1987). He also played Leo in the another short-lived situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
starring Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
, Encore! Encore!
Encore! Encore!
Encore! Encore! is an American sitcom starring Nathan Lane as an opera singer. On the verge of becoming "The Fourth Tenor", Lane's character injures his vocal cords and must move in with his family, who run a vineyard in Northern California. The series premiered on NBC on September 22, 1998.Encore!...
(1998–1999). Sabella also had a five-episode stint on Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom that aired between 1989 and 1993. The series is a retooled version of the 1988 series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was itself later folded into the history of Saved by the Bell...
as Leon Carosi, an uptight resort manager who employed the main cast's characters. Leah Remini
Leah Remini
Leah Marie Remini is an American actress and model. She is best known for her role as Carrie Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens and as Stacey Carosi on the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell...
was featured as his daughter. His other recurring roles include the lazy teacher Mr. Petrachelli on That's So Raven
That's So Raven
That's So Raven is an American cable television teen sitcom/fantasy series. The show premiered on the Disney Channel on January 17, 2003, and ended on November 10, 2007. The show spawned Disney Channel's first spin-off series: Cory in the House...
, the floundering attorney Harland Bassett on The Practice
The Practice
The Practice is an American legal drama created by David E. Kelley centering on the partners and associates at a Boston law firm. Running for eight seasons from 1997 to 2004, the show won the Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Best Drama Series, and spawned the successful and lighter spin-off series Boston...
, and characters on Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
and Newhart
Newhart
Newhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990...
. In the Quantum Leap episode "Catch a Falling Star", he played the dual role of Manny, a stage actor, and Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
, Manny's character in a touring production of Man of La Mancha. Sabella had a brief but memorable appearance as a naked man on a subway train in a 1992 episode of Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
entitled, appropriately, "The Subway". He also starred in a series of television commercials for NyQuil
NyQuil
NyQuil is a brand of over the counter medication which is intended to relieve various symptoms of the common cold. Because all of the medications within the NyQuil imprint contain sedating antihistamines, hypnotics, and/or alcohol, they are intended to be taken before sleep...
cold medicine in 1994, and was recently seen in a Mastercard
MasterCard
Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
commercial (2007). He also did work as the guy from Lynx in 2003.
Sabella co-starred as Sidney Bernstein in the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical comedy Curtains
Curtains (musical)
Curtains is a musical with a book by Rupert Holmes, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander, with additional lyrics by Kander and Holmes....
, which opened officially on March 22, 2007 and ran until June 29, 2008.