Ellis Rabb

Ellis W. Rabb (June 20, 1930 – January 11, 1998) was an American actor and director born in Memphis, Tennessee, the only child of Clark Williamson Rabb and Mary Carolyn (nee Ellis). His Broadway career spanned from 1957 to 1983, encompassing work as both a performer and a director across a wide range of productions.

In 1959, Rabb founded the Association of Producing Artists, a theatre company dedicated to new works and significant revivals presented both on Broadway and in regional theatres. The APA merged with the Phoenix Theatre in 1964, and the resulting APA-Phoenix mounted Broadway revivals that included Man and Superman, The Show Off, Right You Are If You Think You Are, and Hamlet, in which Rabb took on the title role. The APA-Phoenix received a special Tony Award for distinguished achievement before disbanding in 1969.

As a director, Rabb helmed a 1973 production of A Streetcar Named Desire featuring Rosemary Harris, James Farentino, and Patricia Conolly. Harris, to whom Rabb had been married from 1959 to 1967, also headlined his 1975 Broadway revival of The Royal Family, which starred Sam Levene, George Grizzard, and Eva LeGalliene alongside her. That production earned Rabb both a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play, both in 1976. When Grizzard departed the revival due to prior commitments, Rabb stepped into the role of Tony Cavendish. The production was later filmed for the PBS series Great Performances, broadcast on November 9, 1977, and subsequently released on DVD, with Rabb appearing in that version as well. His later directing credits included a 1983 revival of You Can't Take It with You with Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst, and his final Broadway production was his own adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's The Loves of Anatol.

As a performer, Rabb appeared in the Broadway productions of Cock-A-Doodle Dandy and Pantagleize, in addition to his role as Hamlet with the APA-Phoenix. In 1977, he starred in the New York City premiere of David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre at the Off-Broadway Theatre de Lys. In 1980, he played the title role in The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Earlier in his career, Rabb received the Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award in 1962.

Beyond the stage, Rabb appeared in an episode of Cheers titled "The Spy Who Came in for a Cold One," playing a character who claimed first to be an imaginary spy and then a poet, with each claim successively challenged by Diane Chambers and Coach before the character was revealed to be telling the truth about his wealth. Actor Kelsey Grammer has stated that Rabb, whom he had known personally, served as his primary inspiration for the voice of Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons. Rabb died of heart failure at a Memphis, Tennessee hospital on January 11, 1998.