Douglas Seale

Douglas Seale (28 October 1913 – 13 June 1999) was an English film and stage actor. Early life Born in London, Seale was educated at Rutlish School in Wimbledon and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Career He made his professional debut in 1934 and performed in theatre until 1940, before serving in the Royal Corps of Signals during World War II. After being demobbed in 1946, Seale joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company in Stratford-upon-Avon for two seasons before turning to producing and directing stage plays in the United Kingdom and the United States. After returning to acting in later life, he enjoyed his greatest stage success playing Selsdon Mowbray in the 1983 Broadway production of Noises Off, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. In film, Seale provided the voice of Krebbs the koala in The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and, two years later, the Sultan in Aladdin (1992) (with Val Bettin replacing him in the later productions). He also appeared in several films, including Miloš Forman's Amadeus (1984), and Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), in which he played Santa Claus. He appeared in the 1986 Christmas film, A Smoky Mountain Christmas, as Vernon. Seale had a small starring role as Santa in Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In 1987, he appeared in the Cheers episode "A House Is Not a Home", and in 1989, in the Family Ties episode "Get Me to the Living Room on Time".