Two-time Tony nominee Samuel E. Wright, best known as the voice of crab Sebastian in The Little Mermaid, died May 24 at his home in Walden, N.Y. Born Nov. 20, 1946 in Camden, S.C., he made his Broadway debut in Jesus Christ Superstar (1971). A year later, he replaced Clifton Davis as Valentine in Two Gentleman of Verona (1972). Below are Wright and Hattie Winston singing “Night Letter.” In 1974, he replaced Ben Vereen as the Leading Player in Pippin, released the soul single “There’s Something Funny Going On,” and starred in the Andrews Sisters musical Over Here! Before playing Sebastian, Wright’s widest exposure was playing the grapes in the Fruit of the Loom commercials. Below are the Fruit Guys in “You Can’t Over Love.”
Wright returned to Broadway in The Tap Dance Kid (1983), for which he earned his first Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Below are Hinton Battle, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Samuel E. Wright in “Fabulous Feet” at the 1984 Tony Awards. Other highlights of the decade include playing Dizzy Gillespie in the 1988 film Bird and Sebastian in Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989), where he introduced the Oscar-winning song “Under the Sea,” which you can watch below. Wright ended the decade back on Broadway in the short-lived musical Welcome to the Club (1989).
In 1994, Wright cofounded the drama school Hudson Valley Conservatory in Walden, N.Y. A year later, he portrayed the Scarecrow opposite Whitney Houston in the Apollo Theater revival of The Wiz. His other Broadway work included the 1997 revival of Promises, Promises and Mufasa in the stage version of The Lion King, for which Wright received his second Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Below are Wright and the original cast singing “They Live in You” on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.