Frederic Sullivan was an English actor and singer. He originated the role of the Learned Judge in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1875 comic opera Trial by Jury, providing the model for the comic roles in the later Savoy operas.

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.