Arnold Soboloff

 played the Cab Driver in the original Tabatha Pilot (1976).

Biography
Arnold Soboloff was a Broadway, movie and television actor. A native New Yorker, Mr. Soboloff was educated at Cooper Union, where he majored in art. He later studied with Herbert Berghof, Harold Clurman and Mira Rostova.

The wiry Mr. Soboloff was probably best known for his television commercials including an Alka Seltzer advertisement in which, having eaten a stuffed pepper, he says, “I made a big mistake.”

He appeared in many Broadway shows including “The Act” with Liza Minnelli, “The Inspector General” at the Circle in the Square, “Scapino,” “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been,” “Anyone Can Whistle” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” with Kirk Douglas.

He was featured as Big Daddy in “Sweet Charity” for almost two years in which he nightly stopped the show while leading the company through the “Rhythm of Life” number. His versatility was best displayed in several plays requiring multiple roles including “The Egg” and “The Beauty Part” in which he played five characters.

His movie roles included “The Detective,” “Popi,” “Silent Movie,” “High Anxiety,” “Fatso” and “Boardwalk.”

Soboloff suffered a coronary attack minutes after exiting the stage during a performance of “Peter Pan,” the Broadway musical, and was pronounced dead at St. Clare's Hospital at 9:10 p.m. on October 28, 1979. He was 48 years old.

As the character Smee, Captain Hook's sidekick, Mr. Soboloff had been singing and doing comic dancing in a second act number called “A Princely Scheme.” According to Norman Rothstein, general manager of the show, Mr. Soboloff completed the number and exited the stage at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater without interrupting the show or alerting the audience to his distress. He then walked into the stage manager's office where he collapsed.

He was survived by his wife, Sue.