Friday, December 3, 2010

unKNOWN Actors: Sebastian Cabot

There are a few actors that I have featured that are known more for doing a character other than their Disney projects.  Sebastian Cabot is no exception.  Born July 6, 1918 in London, England and died August 22, 1977 in North Saanich, British Columbia, Sebastian is best known for playing Mr. Giles French, the butler in the 1960’s TV show Family Affair.  His Disney career did not start long before this television series.

His first Disney appearance was in 1963, providing the voice for Sir Ector in The Sword in the Stone, the caretaker for young Arthur.

The Jungle Book in 1967 is where we can hear Sebastian next, voicing the responsible panther, Bagheera.

Sebastian was featured in The Wonderful World of Color three different times, in three different years.  The first was in 1956 in Along the Oregon Trail; he played Bissonette.  The next was in 1964 as he did the narration for One Day at Teton Marsh and his last was also as a Narrator in One Day on Beetle Rock (1967).

 While there were no more individual characters that Sebastian provided the voice for, he did provide a much needed voice for many years, the voice of The Narrator for Winnie the Pooh movies from 1966 until 1977.  The movies you can hear his narration in include Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Sebastian had a deep, strong yet soft voice that lent itself to being the voice of a narrator or a guardian of some kind, fitting the characters he portrayed.  The only exception for this is the voice of Sir Ector, where he has more of a gruff voice, but yet still is a guardian.  No matter which character he is voicing, it is still a Disney classic voice and helps make the Disney movies we know and love come to life!

3 comments:

  1. Don't forget his other Disney roles: He guest starred on an episode of Zorro as Judge Vasca in 1957. And he also portrayed Jonathan Lyte in Johnny Tremain, also in 1957.

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  2. Oh wow, that is awesome! Thank you for adding a couple more to the list! I was not aware of those, glad to learn something new!

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  3. You're quite welcome! Happy to help out. I loved all those old Disney TV shows and movies from the 50s and 60s. Not that I was old enough to see them when they were originally made. :)

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