Sebastian Cabot
Birthday:
Birthplace:
London, England, UK
Sebastian Cabot was one of the most recognizable acting talents ever to come out of England, a familiar and popular supporting player in movies and a star of American television for much of the last two decades of his life. For an actor who specialized in elegant and upper-class, educated roles, he was, ironically, a Cockney, born Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot in London in July 1918, within the sound of the bells of St. Mary Le Bow Church. What's more, he came to an acting career fairly late -- and by sheer chance. When his father's business failed, Cabot left school at the age of 14 and began working as a garage helper, the first of many menial jobs. (Well into his fifties, his first love was cars and tinkering with them and their engines.) Cabot never had another day of formal education, and later worked as a chef -- which help precipitate his growth to 260 pounds -- and spent three years as a professional wrestler in London before World War II, an activity ended by an injury. It was while working as a driver for actor Frank Pettingell that Cabot first thought of acting as a career. Later, he bluffed his way into acting jobs by claiming that he'd performed in various roles that he'd heard discussed by his former boss and others while driving them around. He'd also picked up enough of the jargon of experienced actors and enough knowledge to bluff his way through small roles that he didn't keep for long. Along the way, however, he picked up more of what he needed, and bigger parts and longer professional relationships followed. Cabot got some extra work in films, started doing a lot of radio, and entertained the troops during World War II. When the war ended, he made his London debut in 1945, at age 27, in A Bell for Adano, and worked for the BBC as an expert in dialects. He was in John Gielgud's company when it brought Restoration comedy to the New York stage in 1947, and made his television debut on the same tour, playing a French schoolmaster in Topaz for CBS's Studio One, his first contact with the network that would make him a star more than a decade later. He first grew his familiar beard for a role in an Italian movie that was never produced, but the dignified, intense appearance that it gave him got Cabot the part of Lord Capulet in a mid-'50s film Romeo and Juliet and helped him secure the role of Porthos in the European-produced TV series The Three Musketeers, though to American filmgoers he was probably most familiar during those years for his appearances in such large-scale MGM productions as Richard Thorpe's Ivanhoe and Vincente Minnelli's Kismet, portraying the Grand Vizier in the latter. It was on American television in the '60s that Cabot established the persona that would make him a star -- but also leave him typecast. In 1960, he became the star, alongside Anthony George and Doug McClure, of a very cerebral suspense program called Checkmate (created by renowned mystery author Eric Ambler), which was about a firm of private investigators who specialize in preventing crime. As Dr. Carl Hyatt, Cabot was the program's rotund, dignified, Oxford-educated criminologist; the series ran two seasons. Around this same time, the actor also had major starring and supporting roles in such movies as The Time Machine (1960) and Twice Told Tales (1962). By then, he'd given up the stage in favor of film and TV work, enjoying a wide diversity of roles. One of his more difficult parts during this period was his guest appearance on The Twilight Zone in the 1960 installment "A Nice Place to Visit." He played Mr. Pip, a kind of tour guide from beyond the mortal veil who proves to have some unexpected angles to his character. Dressed in white and sporting his hair (including his distinguished beard) dyed white, Cabot carried the whole episode in tandem with Larry Blyden as the object of his attentions, a lately deceased criminal. Unfortunately, the dye-job sidelined the actor from other work for months until his natural color retur
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
100% | Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too |
|
— | 1974 |
No Score Yet | Miracle on 34th Street |
|
— | 1973 |
No Score Yet | Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day |
|
— | 1968 |
88% | The Jungle Book |
|
— | 1967 |
80% | The Family Jewels |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree |
|
— | 1965 |
66% | The Sword in the Stone |
|
— | 1963 |
57% | Twice Told Tales |
|
— | 1963 |
76% | The Time Machine |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | Seven Thieves |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | The Angry Hills |
|
— | 1959 |
No Score Yet | Say One for Me |
|
— | 1959 |
No Score Yet | In Love and War |
|
— | 1958 |
100% | Terror in a Texas Town |
|
— | 1958 |
No Score Yet | Johnny Tremain |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Dragoon Wells Massacre |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Playhouse 90 So Soon to Die |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Black Patch |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Omar Khayyam |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Westward Ho the Wagons! |
|
— | 1956 |
57% | Kismet |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Romeo and Juliet |
|
— | 1954 |
No Score Yet | The Love Lottery |
|
— | 1954 |
80% | The Captain's Paradise |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | Always a Bride |
|
— | 1953 |
81% | Ivanhoe |
|
— | 1952 |
No Score Yet | Old Mother Riley's Jungle Treasure |
|
— | 1951 |
No Score Yet | The Wonder Kids |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | The Spider and the Fly |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | Old Mother Riley's New Venture |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | Dick Barton Strikes Back |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | I Became a Criminal (They Made Me a Fugitive) |
|
— | 1948 |
No Score Yet | Dual Alibi |
|
— | 1947 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
The Beverly Hillbillies
1962-1971
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Bonanza
1959-1973
|
|
|
82% |
The Twilight Zone
1959-1964
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Gunsmoke
1955-1975
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955-1962
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Ghost Story
1973
|
|
|
Quotes from Sebastian Cabot's Characters
Baloo: | Mowgli, come back. Come back! |
Bagheera: | Go on. Go on! |
Dr. Philip Hillyer: | You've got all this time in the world... |
Narrator: | Now, Pooh was not the sort to give up easily. When he put his mind to honey, he stuck to it. |
Narrator: | While Pooh's bottom was stuck at the top of page 28, his top was stuck at the bottom of page 30. So both ends waited to get thin again. Day after day. Night after lonely night... |
Narrator: | So Pooh ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, and ate, and... ATE! |
Narrator: | Now, honey rhymes with bunny, and bunny rhymes with... |
Winnie-the-Pooh: | Rabbit! |
Tigger: | Who are you? |
Narrator: | Why, I'm the narrator. |
Piglet: | Trespassers Will. That stands for Trespassers William. |
Narrator: | "Trespassers William"? |
Narrator: | Trespassers William? |
Piglet: | Yes. |
Narrator: | Now, the first thing Pooh thought of was... |
Winnie-the-Pooh: | Winnie the Pooh? |
Narrator: | (laughs) No! Christopher Robin. |
Winnie-the-Pooh: | Oh. |
Merlin the Magician: | king Aurthur and his knights of the round table |
Merlin the Magician: | Ha ha! Of course, of course. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. |
Sir Ector: | round table ? |
Merlin the Magician: | oh would you like a square one |