{"id":24497,"date":"2021-05-26T16:27:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T16:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=24497"},"modified":"2021-05-27T17:05:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T17:05:07","slug":"samuel-wright-sebastian-little-mermaid","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/samuel-wright-sebastian-little-mermaid\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel E. Wright, Voice of Sebastian in \u2018The Little Mermaid,\u2019 Has Died"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24502\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24502\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-24502\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-181457465-e1622042384998.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Samuel E. Wright\" width=\"1024\" height=\"579\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24502\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Samuel Wright (Photo: Taylor Hill\/FilmMagic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The unmistakable voice of crusty crustacean Sebastian from <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/prive-revaux-disney-pixar-soul-sunglasses\/\">Disney<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/leaked-photos-show-harry-styles-making-a-splash-in-mermaid-outfit\/\"><em>The Little Mermaid <\/em><\/a>has died. Two-time Tony nominated actor Samuel E. Wright passed away on Monday night after a three-year battle with prostate cancer, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/samuel-wright-dead-sebastian-crab-little-mermaid-1234959014\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Long before diving \u201cUnder the Sea,\u201d Wright made a name for himself on <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/broadway-reopens-september\/\">Broadway<\/a>, appearing in <em>Jesus Christ Superstar <\/em>in 1971, and replacing Ben Vereen in <em>Pippin<\/em> in 1972. Over the years, he was nominated for two Tony awards for his roles in <em>The Tap Dance Kid<\/em> (1984) and as the original Mufasa in the Broadway adaptation of Disney\u2019s <em>The Lion King<\/em> (1998). He also played jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie in Clint Eastwood\u2019s 1988 Charlie Parker biopic, <em>Bird<\/em>, and voiced a CGI iguanadon in Disney\u2019s <em>Dinosaur <\/em>(2000).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Little Mermaid - Under the Sea (from The Little Mermaid) (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GC_mV1IpjWA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But Wright was probably best known to a couple generations of kids as the voice of Sebastian, the tiny red crab reluctantly tasked with keeping Ariel out of trouble in <em>The Little Mermaid<\/em> (1989), the film that jumpstarted what is known as the Disney Renaissance of the early 90s. Both the songs he performed in the film were nominated for <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/women-set-record-oscars\/\">Oscars<\/a>, with the Caribbean inflected \u201cUnder the Sea\u201d winning the award for Best Original Song.<\/p>\n<p>Wright reprised the role in various straight-to-video sequels, Saturday morning cartoons, and video games over the subsequent two decades. He also released a pair of kids\u2019 albums, performing various calypso and island-influenced songs in character. I vividly remember listening to <em>Disney\u2019s Sebastian: Party Gras!<\/em> on summer road trips as a kid. To this day, I still associate \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EhZba-P7R18\" target=\"_blank\">Hot Hot Hot<\/a>\u201d with Wright\u2019s cartoon crab.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Disney&#039;s Sebastian - Hot, Hot, Hot\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wFUv5GpECf0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 1991, around the release of <em>Party Gras!<\/em>, Wright told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1991-11-16-ca-1347-story.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a> that he brought the same commitment to voicing Sebastian that he would to playing Othello. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what people are going to judge you by,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t want to be immortal I wouldn\u2019t be acting. I do want to make my little mark on the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":24502,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,2006,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v20.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Samuel E. Wright, Voice of Sebastian in \u2018The Little Mermaid,\u2019 Has Died<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The unmistakable voice of crusty crustacean Sebastian from Disney\u2019s &#039;The Little Mermaid&#039; has died. Two-time Tony nominated actor Samuel E. 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