Ernie Sabella | |
---|---|
Born | Ernest Sabella September 19, 1949 |
Occupation(s) | Actor, comedian |
Years active | 1976–present |
Spouse | Cheryl Sabella (m. 1999) |
Ernest Sabella [1] (born September 19, 1949) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Pumbaa from The Lion King franchise, voicing the character in all media except the 2019 film. Sabella's TV roles include Mr. Donald "Twinkie" Twinkacetti in Perfect Strangers (1986-1987), George Shipman in A Fine Romance , and Leon Carosi in Saved by the Bell (1991). His work in Broadway theatre includes starring roles in Guys and Dolls, Chicago, Curtains, and Man of La Mancha .
Born in Westchester County, New York, Sabella graduated from the University of Miami, [2] where he studied at the Department of Theatre Arts and performed at the university's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.
His stage credits include The Robber Bridegroom (1976), Little Johnny Jones (1982), Guys and Dolls (1992) as Harry the Horse, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996), Chicago as Amos Hart (replacement), Man of La Mancha (2002, as Sancho Panza) and Sweet Charity (2005). [3]
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. Sabella also joined Lane for his Saturday Night Live monologue, where they sang "Hakuna Matata".
On television, Sabella portrayed apartment manager Lou Donatelli in the Jason Bateman comedy It's Your Move (1984–85). [4] He appeared in an episode of Cheers titled "Love Thy Neighbor" (Season Four Episode Eight air date November 21, 1985) [4] in which he played the role of a private investigator named Santo Carbone, who was Carla Tortelli's cousin. He played store owner and landlord Donald Twinkacetti on Perfect Strangers (1986–1987). [4] He played Leo in the short-lived situation comedy Encore! Encore! starring Nathan Lane (2000). [4] Sabella had a five-episode stint on Saved by the Bell in 1991 as Leon Carosi, [4] an uptight resort manager and owner 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 (2003), the floundering attorney Harland Bassett on The Practice (2000-2001), and characters on Newhart (1983). [4]
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 appearance as a naked man on a subway train in a 1992 episode of Seinfeld titled "The Subway". [4]
He starred in a series of television commercials for NyQuil cold medicine in 1994 and was seen in a MasterCard commercial (2007), as well as Lynx in 2008.
Sabella co-starred as Sidney Bernstein in the Broadway musical comedy Curtains , which opened officially on March 22, 2007 [5] and ran until June 29, 2008.
He played the role of apartment building superintendent Leon in the 9th episode "Hold Outs" of the 6th season (2015) of the CBS police procedural drama Blue Bloods . [4]
In 2015, Sabella reprised his voice role as Pumbaa in the TV pilot film The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar.
In 2016, Sabella became a full-time cast member for the Disney Junior television series The Lion Guard . [6]
Sabella met his wife Cheryl near the backstage door following a Broadway performance of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1996; they married in 1999. [7] [2] His wife works as a computer programmer in their home town. [2]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1984 | City Heat | Ballistics Expert | |
1986 | Tough Guys | Hotel Clerk | |
1988 | Fright Night Part 2 | Dr. Harrison | |
1990 | Faith | Stanley | |
Going Under | The Mole | ||
1994 | The Lion King | Pumbaa | Voice |
Quiz Show | Car Salesman | ||
1995 | Roommates | Stash | |
1996 | Around the World with Timon & Pumbaa | Pumbaa | Voice, direct-to-video |
1997 | In & Out | Aldo Hopper | |
Mouse Hunt | Maury, the Cat Care Society Owner | ||
1998 | The Lion King II: Simba's Pride | Pumbaa | Voice, direct-to-video |
1999 | The Out-of-Towners | Getaway Driver | |
2001 | Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse | Pumbaa | Voice, direct-to-video |
2004 | The Lion King 1½ | ||
2010 | Listen to Your Heart | Tony | |
2015 | The Challenger | Frankie | |
2016 | Bakery in Brooklyn | Dave |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1980 | Broadway on Showtime | Sing Song, Big Harp | 2 episodes |
1982 | St. Elsewhere | Patient | Episode: "Pilot" |
1982–1984 | Cagney & Lacey | Cabbie | 2 episodes |
1983 | The New Odd Couple | Policeman | Episode: "My Strife in Court" |
13 Thirteenth Avenue | Vlastock Spoltechzep | Television film | |
Newhart | Ed Halstead, Police Officer | 3 episodes | |
1983–1984 | Knots Landing | Frank Edmunds | 2 episodes |
1983–1987 | Hill Street Blues | Pauli, Paulie Shellcop, Paulie | 4 episodes |
1984 | Alice | Franklin | Episode: "Vera, the Horse Thief" |
Oh Madeline | Phelps | Episode: "Monday Night Madeline" | |
The Facts of Life | Husband | Episode: "All by Herself" | |
The New Mike Hammer | Salvatore Juno | 2 episodes | |
Domestic Life | Ralph Pomeroy | Episode: "Showdown at Walla Walla" | |
100 Centre Street | Harry Pike | Television film | |
Punky Brewster | Elroy Kramer | Episode: "Parents Night" | |
1984–1985 | It's Your Move | Lou Donatelli | 18 episodes |
1985 | Diff'rent Strokes | Ben | Episode: "Sam's Missing" |
Hardcastle and McCormick | Clyde Whitley | Episode: "Strange Hold" | |
Cheers | Santo Carbone, Stan | 2 episodes | |
Copacabana | Sam Gropper | Television film | |
1986 | It's a Living | Walter Cliff | Episode: "Gander Gap" |
Benson | Bo | Episode: "Parade Rest" | |
1986–1987 | Perfect Strangers | Mr. Donald 'Twinkie' Twinkacetti | 22 episodes |
1987 | Roxie | Vito Carteri | 6 episodes |
Married... with Children | Mr. Pond | Episode: "Peggy Sue Got Work" | |
Hunter | Earnie | Episode: "Turning Point" | |
1988 | Sledge Hammer! | Al Fresco | Episode: "The Secret of My Excess" |
Mr. Belvedere | Mr. Plumer | Episode: "Roommates" | |
1989 | A Fine Romance | George Shipman | 13 episodes |
Open House | Episode: "Murder, He Wrote" | ||
My Two Dads | Officer Ringer | Episode: "Dad Patrol" | |
Quantum Leap | Manny, Sancho Panza | Episode: "Catch a Falling Star - May 21, 1979" | |
1990 | Coach | Ernie | Episode: "Men Don't Heal" |
1990–1991 | Good Grief | Tyrone, Flipper | 2 episodes |
1991 | Babes | Mo | Episode: "The Last Temptation of Marlene" |
Murphy Brown | Julian | Episode: "Small" | |
Saved by the Bell | Leon Carosi | 6 episodes | |
Major Dad | Phil | Episode: "Lady in Waiting" | |
1992 | Seinfeld | Naked Man | Episode: "The Subway" |
A Different World | Campus Security | Episode: "The Cat's in the Cradle" | |
Davis Rules | Coach | Episode: "Strike Down the Band" | |
Dangerous Curves | Jack Kilty | Episode: "Die Laughing" | |
Just My Imagination | Arnold Mayer | Television film | |
1994 | Mad About You | Maurice | Episode: "Till Death Do Us Part" |
1995 | Pins and Needles | Marvin | Television film |
Blame It on Ernie | Unknown role | Unknown episodes | |
1995–1999 | Timon & Pumbaa | Pumbaa, Bampuu, Gopher | Voice, main role |
1997 | Disney's One Saturday Morning | Pumbaa | Voice |
1998–1999 | Encore! Encore! | Leo | 5 episodes |
1999–2001 | The Practice | Harland Bassett | 4 episodes |
1999 | Malcolm & Eddie | Mort Diamond | Episode: "The Tapawingo Witch Project" |
Annie | Mr. Bundles | Television film | |
2000 | Find Out Why | Pumbaa | Voice, 8 episodes |
Providence | Lou Keppler | 3 episodes | |
2001 | Ed | Gary Swirdlock | Episode: "Hook, Line and Sinker" |
2001–2002 | House of Mouse | Pumbaa | Voice, 14 episodes |
2003 | That's So Raven | Mr. Petrachelli | 2 episodes |
2015 | Blue Bloods | Leon | Episode: "Holds Out" |
2015 | The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar | Pumbaa | Voice, television film |
2016–2019 | The Lion Guard | Pumbaa [8] | Voice, 10 episodes |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1995 | Animated Storybook: The Lion King | Pumbaa |
Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Pinball | ||
The Lion King: Activity Center | ||
Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games | ||
1998 | The Lion King II: Simba's Pride Active Play | |
2000 | The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure | |
2003 | Timon & Pumbaa Virtual Safari | |
2004 | Who Wants to be King of the Jungle | |
2005 | Kingdom Hearts II | |
2007 | Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1995–2018 | Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable | Pumbaa |
2008–2013 | Wild About Safety |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1976–1977 | The Robber Bridegroom | Big Harp, Little Harp | [3] |
1982 | Little Johnny Jones | Whitney Wilson | [3] |
1992 | Guys and Dolls | Harry the Horse | [3] |
1996 | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Marcus Lycus | [3] |
1997 | Chicago | Amos Hart | Replacement [3] |
2002 | Man of La Mancha | Sancho Panza | [3] |
2004–2005 | Sweet Charity | Herman | [3] |
2007–2008 | Curtains | Sidney Bernstein | [3] |
Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 17th-century novel Don Quixote. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or Don Quixote. Wasserman complained repeatedly about people taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote.
Nathan Lane is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been seen on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. Lane has received numerous awards, including three Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards, the Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".
The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa is an American animated buddy comedy television series created by Walt Disney Television Animation. It was based on Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King, centering on Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog as they continue to live by their problem-free philosophy hakuna matata. Compared to most other The Lion King media, the tone of the series is more slapstick comedy-oriented.
The Lion King 1½ is a 2004 American animated direct-to-video musical comedy film produced by the Australian branch of DisneyToon Studios and released direct to video on February 10, 2004. The third and final installment released in the original Lion King trilogy, it is based on The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa and serves as an origin story for the meerkat/warthog duo Timon and Pumbaa while the film is also set within the events of The Lion King (1994). A majority of the original voice cast from the first film returns to reprise their roles, including Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella as the voices of Timon and Pumbaa, respectively. The plot of the movie is inspired by Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a tragicomedy that tells the story of Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters.
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author 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 earthy wit. "Panza" in Spanish means "belly".
Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable was a 70 mm documentary, shown in the Harvest Theater in The Land pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida. It opened on January 21, 1995, replacing Symbiosis. The main narrator of the story was Simba.
James Emil Coco was an American stage and screen actor. He was the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Cable ACE Award and three Obie Awards, as well as nominations for a Tony Award, an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Coco is remembered for his supporting roles in the films Man of La Mancha (1972), Murder by Death (1976) and Only When I Laugh (1981).
Edward Hibbert is an American-born British actor and literary agent. He played Gil Chesterton in the TV series Frasier. He also voiced Zazu in several installments in The Lion King franchise, replacing Rowan Atkinson.
Timon and Pumbaa are an animated meerkat and warthog duo introduced in Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King and its franchise. Timon was played through his many appearances by Nathan Lane, Max Casella, Kevin Schon, Quinton Flynn, Bruce Lanoil in the Wild About Safety shorts and Kingdom Hearts II, while Pumbaa is voiced by Ernie Sabella, and was portrayed by Tom Alan Robbins in the original cast of the Broadway musical. In the CGI remake, the characters are portrayed by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen, respectively. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella first came to audition for the roles of the hyenas, but when the producers saw how well they worked together, they decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa.
"The Phone Message" is the ninth episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the fourth of the show's second season. The episode concerns protagonist Jerry Seinfeld dating a woman who likes a commercial for cotton Dockers he dislikes. Meanwhile, his friend George Costanza leaves an obnoxious message on the answering machine of his girlfriend, and goes to great lengths to prevent her from hearing it.
"The Subway" is the 30th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 13th episode of the show's third season. It aired on January 8, 1992.
"Hakuna Matata" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King. The music was written by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice. The song is based on Timon and Pumbaa's catchphrase in the movie, Hakuna matata, a Swahili phrase meaning "No worry(ies)". It is characterized by its simple 4/4 time, upbeat message and catchy lyrics.
Tom Alan Robbins is an American actor known for his roles in theatre and television.
Kevin Schon is an American voice actor who is known for his voice-over work in video games, movies and television shows. He is best known as a voice double for Nathan Lane for animated media, most notably as Timon in the Timon & Pumbaa television series and in various other Disney related projects.
Don Quixote or Don Quixote de la Mancha is the first sound film version in Spanish of the great classic novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It was directed and adapted by Rafael Gil and released in 1947. A huge undertaking for Spanish cinema in its day, it was the longest film version of the novel up to that time, and very likely the most faithful, reverently following the book in its dialogue and order of episodes, unlike G.W. Pabst's 1933 version and the later Russian film version, which scrambled up the order of the adventures as many film versions do. Characters such as Cardenio, Dorotea, and Don Fernando, which are usually omitted because their respective subplots have little to do with the main body of the novel, were kept in this film.
The Lion King is a Disney media franchise comprising a film series and additional media. The success of animated original 1994 American feature film, The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, led to a direct-to-video sequel and prequel, a live-action remake in 2019, a television film sequel, two spin-off television series, three educational shorts, several video games, merchandise, and the third-longest-running musical in Broadway history, which garnered six Tony Awards including Best Musical. The franchise, led by the musical's box office at $8.1 billion, is the highest-grossing entertainment property. The franchise as a whole has EGOT-ed, meaning it has won the four biggest awards of American show business.
Disney's Wild About Safety is an educational series that features short films that were produced by Disney Educational Productions, Duck Studios, and Underwriters' Laboratories. The series is directed and produced by Dave Bossert, and written by Douglas Segal. The music is composed by Mark Watters, and the video was edited by Melissa Time using Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro.