American stage and film actor Samuel E. Wright is best known for voicing Sebastian the Crab in the 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid. ∙ Wright got his first big break in 1972, when he took over for Ben Vereen as the lead in the Broadway production of Pippin. ∙ In 1973, he recorded a soul single, “There’s Something Funny Going On,” for Paramount Records. ∙ Playing jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, he made his film debut in 1988’s Bird. ∙ “Under the Sea,” one of several songs he performed in The Little Mermaid, won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. ∙ The 1990 album Disney’s Sebastian from the Little Mermaid featured various reggae and calypso songs sung by Wright in the Sebastian voice. ∙ He starred as Mufasa in the original 1997 Broadway production of The Lion King.