LESLIE PHILLIPS
(20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022)
The English actor Leslie Phillips, who has died aged 98, following a long illness and two strokes, was a very talented light comedy performer popular on radio, television, on stage and on the big screen. He often played rather louche characters, a womaniser first and foremost, although not always a successful one. He appeared in some of British cinema’s long-lasting series such as the Carry Ons and the Doctor films. His acting was often better than the scripts he was given, but he always approached any job of work with a lightness of touch, not an easy thing to do.
Leslie Samuel Phillips was born in north London to Frederick Phillips, who worked for a cooker manufacturer, and his wife Cecilia. When Leslie was seven, the family moved to Chingford in Essex, but four years later his father died. The boy was then sent to the Italia Conti Academy by his mother in order to learn acting and dance and also to lose his Cockney accent. It took a while for him to adopt his rather refined way of speaking, although he claimed to be mainly helped by being in the company of other actors and army officers during the war.
One of his first stage roles in 1937 was playing a wolf in Peter Pan with Anna Neagle at the London Palladium. In the following season he graduated to playing John Darling. His first film appearance was in Lassie from Lancashire in 1938 and he made other uncredited appearances until he secured a minor role in The Proud Valley (1940), with Paul Robeson, at Ealing Studios. During World War II he mainly worked in the West End until he was called up to join the army in 1942, becoming a second lieutenant. However, he was invalided out with a neurological condition that caused partial paralysis.
Back in Civvy Street, he toured in theatre until he was cast in Julien Duvivier’s version of Anna Karenina with Vivien Leigh, and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes, both in 1948. During the 1950s, he regularly appeared in films. By the time he was thirty-three, he managed to get a decent part in George Cukor’s Les Girls, playing Sir Gerald Wren opposite Gene Kelly, Kay Kendall and Mitzi Gaynor. This led to more films including, in 1957, The Barretts of Wimpole Street with Jennifer Jones and John Gielgud, Brothers in Law with Richard Attenborough, and The Smallest Show on Earth with Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna.
From 1948 Leslie Phillips had regularly appeared on radio, his most famous programme being The Navy Lark, a sitcom set aboard the fictional ship HMS Troutbridge, from 1959 to 1977, alongside Jon Pertwee, Ronnie Barker, Dennis Price and Stephen Murray. There was also a film of the series in 1959, a year that was also memorable for Phillips as he appeared in his first Carry On film, Carry On Nurse, which led to Carry On Teacher, Carry On Constable and Carry On Columbus.
His appearances in the Doctor series of medical comedies began in 1960 with Doctor in Love and, later on, Doctor in Clover and Doctor in Trouble. He was often noted for his comical sexual catchphrases of “Hello!” and “ding-dong”, the first of which became the title of his autobiography in 2006. He carried on making scores of other British comedies with the occasional serious film in between the laughter. These included The Longest Day, the 1962 war film, Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa (1985), Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987), Michael Caton-Jones’ Scandal (1989), Bob Rafelson’s Mountains of the Moon (1990) and August, Anthony Hopkins’ adaptation of Uncle Vanya, in 1996.
In these films, Phillips was able to show what a fine dramatic actor he was away from comedy. He continued to make films until 2012, including Venus in 2006 in which he, Peter O'Toole and Richard Griffiths had enormous fun playing a trio of ancient reprobate actors. One of his last roles was as the voice of the Sorting Hat in two of the Harry Potter films.
Phillips also acted on stage between films and television work, appearing in the West End in plays by Peter Nichols, Chekhov, Philip King, Arthur Watkin, Philip Mackie, Ray Cooney and Tina Howe. From one extreme to another, he was in Brandon Thomas’ farce Charley’s Aunt in the West End in the 1950s and played Falstaff in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Merry Wives of Windsor at Stratford and the Barbican in the late 1990s. He was an all-round consummate actor if ever there was one.
Leslie Phillips was first married to the actress Penelope Bartley in 1948 (they divorced in 1965), by whom he had four children, Roger, Andrew, Caroline and Claudia. He was also married to the actress Angela Scoular from 1982 until her death in 2011. Then, aged 89, he married the Turkish social worker Zara Carr . Between marriages he also had a long-term relationship with the actress Caroline Mortimer.
His awards included an OBE in 1998 and a CBE in 2008 for his services to drama. In 2007 both Leslie Phillips and Peter O’Toole were nominated by Bafta for Venus while Phillips won for the same role in the British Independent Film Awards. He was also nominated for Venus by the London Critics’ Circle and also received their Dilys Powell Award. The London Evening Standard gave him a Special Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
MICHAEL DARVELL