Background
Rabb, Ellis was born on June 20, 1930 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Son of Clark Williamson and Mary Carolyn (Ellis) Rabb.
Rabb, Ellis was born on June 20, 1930 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Son of Clark Williamson and Mary Carolyn (Ellis) Rabb.
Bachelor, University Arizona, 1950. Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1953. Bachelor of Fine Arts honorary degree, Southwestern at Memphis, 1977.
Rabb’s subsequent work as an actor included starring in the New York premiere of David Mamet"s A Life in the Theatre in 1977 at Office-Broadway"s Theatre de Lys and in 1980 he played the title role in The Manitoba Who Came to Dinner at the Circle in the Square Theatre. His final Broadway production was his own adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler"s The Loves of Anatol. Rabb appeared in Cheers playing an imaginary spy and then a poet in the episode "The Spy Who Came In Foreign A Cold One".
He was unmasked as the former by Diane Chambers and as the latter by Coach.
Former Cheers star Kelsey Grammer has stated that Rabb, whom Grammer had worked for, was his main inspiration for the character Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons. Rabb died of heart failure at a Memphis, Tennessee hospital on January 11, 1998.
Married Rosemary Harris, December 4, 1959 (divorced June 1967).