September 20 - Samuel E. Wright

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

On this day, in 1946, Samuel E. Wright was born in Camden, South Carolina. He is best known for his work with the Walt Disney Company. His biggest role came in 1989 in The Little Mermaid as Horatio Ignatius Crustaceus Sebastian, a crab from Jamaica with a Trinidadian accent (Samuel nailed his audition but apparently couldn’t do Jamaican). Samuel’s energy and enthusiasm helped propel Sebastian’s signature song “Under the Sea” to an Academy Award win for Best Song. Like his co-star, Jodi Benson, he then spent the next couple of decades reprising Sebastian for everything from The Little Mermaid II to the animated television series to video games.

Photo copyright Disney

In 1998, Samuel changed things up a bit by originating the role Mufasa in the Broadway version of The Lion King. Bringing his usual vigor to the role paid off when he was nominated for a Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Musical (he lost to Ron Rifkin for Cabaret). He would also appear in 2000’s Dinosaur as the voice of Kron the Iguanodon.

Photo copyright Disney

Outside of Disney, Samuel appeared in a number of films and Broadway shows. The highlight of his silver screen work is probably as Dizzy Gillespie in the 1988 biopic Bird. On stage, he was in the forgettable (the short lived Welcome to the Club with future co-star, Jodi Benson) and the incredible (another Tony nomination for The Tap Dance Kid in 1984). He also originated the role of Sam in Over Here!

A number of years ago, Samuel retired from acting and settled down in New York City.

September 19 - Jeremy John Irons

On this day, in 1948, Jeremy John Irons was born on the Isle of Wight in England.

Jeremy attended the Bristol Old Vic Theater School in Bristol, England for his formal theatrical training. The Old Vic is, of course, the most prestigious British acting school having been founded by Laurence Olivier himself, don't you know. His training definitely took though, as he's managed to win all kinds of awards since his West End debut 47 years ago.

And what a debut. He played John the Baptist and Judas in the original London production of Godspell, which ran for over 1100 performances. Jeremy would go on to grace West End stages for multiple productions right up to this year. He's played with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and at the Globe Theatre. All that success on British stages naturally made British television notice him.

Jeremy began appearing fairly regularly on all sorts of programs on the BBC starting in the early 1970s. In 1977, he starred in Love for Lydia for 13 episodes. The following year he was romantically linked to Judy Dench in Langrishe, Go Down.

But it was in 1981's Brideshead Revisited that Jeremy got a taste of what could really be called fame. A Golden Globe nomination would come out of that performance. The same year, Jeremy would star opposite Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman. A BAFTA award nomination would come out of that performance. If you can believe it, things would only get better for Jeremy after that pretty spectacular year.

A Tony Award win for his Broadway debut in The Real Thing in 1984. Multiple awards for playing twin brothers in 1988's Dead Ringers. Multiple awards including an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Reversal of Fortune in 1990. Primetime Emmys in 1997, 2006 and 2014. Another Golden Globe, a SAG Award and more nominations then most graduating classes can usually amass collectively. Yes, Jeremy is just that good.

His contribution to the Disney Studio is threefold. First, and foremost, Jeremy turned an a deliciously unctuous performance as the villain of The Lion King, Scar. My second favorite Disney bad guy earned Jeremy a well deserved Annie Award. The second place you might known him, actually seeing him this time, was as HG Wells in the Circle-Vision movie called The Timekeeper. This film played in Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland from the mid 1990s through the mid 2000s. The third place Jeremy was heard was also a place that almost paired him with Judy Dench again. He was the third person to narrate the Epcot attraction Spaceship Earth, replacing Walter Cronkite in 1994. She was his replacement in 2008.

As I said earlier, Jeremy was playing on the West End earlier this year. Even though he turns 70 today, he may have a few more award nominations in his future. I think I speak for all of us when I say we look forward to seeing what that future brings.