Ernie Sabella

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernie Sabella (born September 19, 1949) has been an actor on Broadway and in television and film since the late 1970s.

[edit] Biography and career

Born in Westchester, New York, Sabella graduated from Westlake High School in Thornwood, New York, Sabella then went on to graduate from the University of Miami, where he studied at the University of Miami's 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), 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 and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Sabella portrayed Marcus Lycus; Lane played Pseudolus.

On television, he had a five-episode stint on Saved by the Bell as "Leon Carosi," an uptight resort manager who employed the main cast's characters. King of Queens star Leah Remini was featured as his daughter. He also played lazy teacher Mr. Petrachelli on That's So Raven.

Sabella also made a notable guest appearance on A Different World in the 1992 episode "The Cat's in the Cradle," where he played a campus police officer at the fictional Virginia A&M who mediates an argument between black and White American students over a racially charged incident. When a black student assumes he will take the side of the white students, he retorts: "Oh, that's right, I'm white — I could be a card-carrying member of the Klan; you don't know." When the black student agrees, the officer replies angrily, "... or I could have marched with Dr. King. You don't know."