Sabu receives a salute

The Criterion Collection’s Eclipse series pays tribute to the Indian-born actor Sabu. At 13, he was discovered by documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty (“Nanook of the North”), who cast him in a role of an elephant driver in the popular 1937 film “Elephant Boy.” Sabu is best known for his role as Abu in Alexander and Zoltan Korda’s 1940 film “The Thief of Bagdad.” Sabu became a U.S. citizen in 1944 and served in the armed services during World War II. His postwar career suffered. He died of a heart attack in 1963.