Ernie Sabella

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Ernie Sabella
Ernie Sabella as Sancho Panza on Quantum Leap
Born	September 19, 1949 Westchester, New York
Notable roles	Pumbaa, Sancho Panza

Ernie Sabella (born September 19, 1949) is an American actor.

[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 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). In January, 2007, he joined the cast of the Broadway musical comedy Curtains, which is scheduled to begin performances on February 27 and will open officially on March 22, 2007. Sabella's character in Curtains is Sidney Bernstein.^[1]

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 played Leo in the short-lived Nathan Lane situation comedy 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. Another recurring role was as the lazy teacher Mr. Petrachelli on That's So Raven. 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.