Leslie Phillips
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- See also Leslie Phillips (singer).
Leslie Samuel Phillips OBE (b. April 20, 1924) is an English comedy actor, born in Tottenham, London.
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[edit] Biography
Contrary to his public persona, Phillips came from a background of poverty. His father manufactured cookers in Edmonton, London and the 'filthy, sulphurous' air of the factory gave him a weak heart and dropsy leading to his death at the age of 44. It was his mother who decided that Phillips should be sent to the Italia Conti Academy to receive speech lessons in order to lose his natural cockney accent as at that time a regional accent was a major impediment to an aspiring actor. It proved to be an astute move and by the age of 14 Phillips was the main breadwinner, saving his mother from squalor.
Phillips made his first film appearances in the 1930s, in fact he is the last actor left alive who appeared at Pinewood Studios during the week it opened in 1936. He also understudied for Binkie Beaumont and H.M Tennent in the West End. During the Second-World war when shows were frequently interrupted by air-raid sirens, Phillips recalls in his autobiography how 'audiences would evaporate and head for cellars or Underground stations'.
Due to his upper-crust accent, Phillips was selected for officer training at Catterick and duly commissioned as a second lieutenant. Sadly Phillips was declared unfit for service after undergoing what appears to be a mental and emotional breakdown, and treated in a psychiatric hospital.
Demobbed in 1944, Phillips' acting career initially took in 'the murkiest rat-infested old playhouses and music halls in the North of England'. However after becoming familiar on radio with 250 episodes of The Navy Lark, his career in film and television took off. It was during the 1950s that he became famous for playing amusing English stereotypes. His suave, seductive voice is his trademark as well as his catchphrases, "Hello", "I say, Ding Dong" and "Lumme!", which were partly, if not wholly, based on those of fellow cad actor Terry Thomas. His greatest claim to fame are the "Doctor" series of movies, which he inherited from Dirk Bogarde. He appeared in three of the early Carry On films series (Carry On Nurse, Carry On Teacher and Carry On Constable) and the 1990s revival Carry On Columbus, as well as several films in the 'Doctor' series. After his marriage to Angela Scoular in 1982 Phillips decide to move away from the kind of lecherous twits with suave chat-up lines which had characterised much of his previous work.
Phillips has remained busy acting in both stage and television productions, along with character roles in films like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. Phillips has also recently provided the voice for the Sorting Hat in the popular 1st Harry Potter film. He has also appeared in British sitcoms, including Honey for Tea with Felicity Kendal. He has appeared in cameo roles in the police series The Bill.
In 2007 he appeared in Hanif Kureshi's film Venus alongside Peter O'Toole and is nominated for a BAFTA for best supporting actor for his role as the veteran actor, Ian. [1]
Phillips' autobiography, Hello was published by Orion in 2006. ISBN 0-7528-8178-7.
[edit] Personal life
Phillips married his first wife Penelope Bartley in 1948, producing four children, Caroline, Claudia, Andrew and Roger. However by 1960 Phillips' work commitments began to take their toll on the marriage, as Phillips puts it in his autobigraphy:
'Penny never objected to the money coming in, but she had begun to complain about my absences.'
In 1962 Phillips starred in a play called The Big Killing and was immediately attracted to the understudy Caroline Mortimer, daughter of writer Penelope Mortimer and stepdaughter of Sir John Mortimer. Before marrying John Mortimer, Penelope had had four daughters by three men. At 19, Caroline was 18 years younger than Phillips however the attraction was mutual. In his autobiography Phillips writes of his dilemma: despite his public image he had been a loyal and faithful husband up to this point and battled with his conscience before anything happened. Though his wife Penelope had distanced herself from his career and there was a growing distance between them, Phillips still felt torn. However, as the play's run continued he got more deeply involved with Mortimer. As the affair gathered momentum he even met her mother Penelope.
'I was certain at first that they didn't consider me very suitable ... Penelope Mortimer took a long-nosed view of the kind of light comedy in which I'd had so much success. Perhaps, like many people , she didn't appreciate that from a technical point of view it was often a great deal harder to bring off than straight drama.'
Ultimately Phillips was forced out of the family home against his wishes when a friend of his wife conveyed the information of his affair and Bartley decided she wanted a divorce. Phillips was spending more time with Mortimer's family, taking a foreign cruise with them and being a regular guest at the dinner table. As the divorce dragged on life became difficult for Phillips who was attempting to maintain contact with his children, providing for them and his now antagonistic wife, his relationship with Caroline as well as his career. To compound the situation, the same friend who informed Bartley of his affair (and of whom Phillips has expressed his dislike) contrived to have his beloved dog Pippa put-down. However his contact with John Mortimer did at least result in him playing a judge in two of his television dramas. It was truly a turbulent time for the actor as he neared 40. There was respite in happiness at least as he and Caroline found the then unspoiled island of Ibiza and bought a farmhouse there which played host to Diana Rigg, Nigel Davenport, Laurence Olivier and Denholm Elliott amongst others. During these times there Mortimer embraced the hippy life and would drift around in kaftans, barefoot and bandana'd, Phillips writes in his autobiography that he was deeply in love with her but it proved to be not enough. Now in her mid-twenties, Mortimer was expressing a wish to get married and have children. Phillips was unprepared to have more children and cites his reluctance to marry in the demise of their relationship.
En route to his next job in Australia Phillips was even more baleful when the inflight movie starred no other than Caroline Mortimer. However he had soon embarked upon a relationship with his co-star Vicki Luke, drawn to her by her sexual energy, attractiveness and unpredictability. She turned up unannounced on his doorstep in Ibiza and the two embarked on a relationship characterised by risk-taking mainly on her part and which, despite the danger, Phillips found himself drawn to. There was a time when returning from Bangkok she revealed that she had smuggled drugs in Phillips' bag. However when he took a lead role in the play Sextet back in London and was immediately drawn to his co-star (over whom he had casting approval) Angela Scoular, a former Bond girl, Luke packed her bags and moved on. Scoular and Phillips moved in together at his house in Maida Vale. Around the same time Penelope Bartley had a stroke which left her seriously debilitated. Phillips and Scoular helped her over the years as she struggled with her condition, Phillips has admitted that due to the time they'd spent together he still felt partly married to Bartley. In 1981 he and Scoular left on a tour of a Ray Cooney play round Australia. While there, his daughter Caroline phoned to say that his first wife had died in a fire. Phillips decided to stay in the production as his departure would've meant its closure. He didn't return to Britain until 1982 when the first thing he did was drive to Horley in Surrey to visit her grave. Phillips has written that he is aware that his family have never forgiven him for not coming back for the funeral.
In 1982 Phillips and Scoular, 22 years his junior, were married and are together to this day. Phillips has said though that he has never lost any of his appreciation for a well made female figure. He was particularly happy to be asked to present an award at the British Comedy Awards in 2003 with glamour model Jordan.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Radio
- The Navy Lark
- Oh, Get On with It! (with Kenneth Williams)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Hactar
[edit] Television
- The Comic Strip'
- Casanova '73 (BBC, 1973)
- Chancer (Central Television, 1990 - 1991)
- Honey for Tea, (1994)
- Love on a Branch Line, (1994)
- The Catherine Tate Show, (2006)
[edit] Films
- The Sound Barrier (1952)
- The Limping Man (1953)
- The Fake (1953)
- Value for Money (1955)
- The Gamma People (1956)
- The Big Money (1956)
- Brothers in Law (1957)
- Les Girls (1957)
- The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)
- The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957)
- High Flight (1957)
- Just My Luck (1957)
- I Was Monty's Double (1958)
- Carry on Nurse (1959)
- The Angry Hills (1959)
- Carry on Teacher (1959)
- The Man Who Liked Funerals (1959)
- The Navy Lark (1959)
- Night We Dropped a Clanger (1959)
- This Other Eden (1959)
- Carry on Constable (1960)
- Doctor in Love (1960)
- Inn for Trouble (1960)
- Beware of Children (1960)
- Please Turn Over (1960)
- In the Doghouse (1961)
- Raising the Wind (1961)
- Watch Your Stern (1961)
- A Weekend with Lulu (1961)
- Very Important Person (1961)
- The Longest Day (1962)
- Crooks Anonymous (1963)
- The Fast Lady (1963)
- Father Came Too! (1964)
- You Must Be Joking! (1965)
- Doctor in Clover (1966)
- Maroc 7 (1967)
- Doctor in Trouble (1970)
- Some Will, Some Won't (1970)
- The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (Gluttony segment) (1971)
- Not Now, Darling (1972)
- Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! (1973)
- La Mosca Hispanica (Spanish Fly) (1975)
- Not Now, Comrade (1975)
- Out of Africa (film) (1985)
- Monte Carlo (1986)
- Empire of the Sun (1987)
- Scandal (1989)
- Summer's Lease (1989)
- Mountains of the Moon (1990)
- King Ralph (1991)
- Carry on Columbus (1992)
- Bermuda Grace (1993)
- The Changeling (1994)
- The House of Windsor (1994)
- Das Karussell des Todes (1995)
- August (1996)
- Caught in the Act (1996)
- The Canterville Ghost (1996)
- The Jackal (1997)
- Saving Grace (2000)
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) (voice)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) (voice)
- Thunderpants (2002)
- Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004)
- Millions (2004)
- Venus (2007)
[edit] Video Games
Phillips provided his voice for the character of Gex in the UK and European release of Gex: Enter the Gecko.
