R.I.P. Leslie Phillips, British actor of Carry On and Harry Potter
Leslie Phillips died peacefully in his sleep on Monday at 98 years old, his agent Jonathan Lloyd tells BBC.
Aux News Phillips
Leslie Phillips, the career British actor who voiced The Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter franchise among countless other roles, has died. Phillips’ agent Jonathan Lloyd confirms to the BBC that the 98-year-old performer and World War II veteran died peacefully in his sleep on Monday.
Known as an onscreen Casanova for decades before he joined The Wizarding World, Phillips starred in more than 170 roles across film and television throughout his lengthy career. He was known for starring in the Carry On and Doctor films in the 1950s and ‘60s—the Carry On franchise was enormous in Britain, spanning 31 films.
Born in 1924 in Tottenham, England, Phillips’ early years were a far cry from the luxurious lifestyle he portrayed onscreen. After his father died when he was 10, Phillips’ family sold their small home and began renting flats, struggling with financial troubles. Phillips’ way of helping out proved to be performing.
“Because I did plays at school, my mother [Cecelia] answered an advertisement for me to audition at the Italia Conti stage school,” Phillips told The Guardian in 2009. “By the age of 14, I was earning more than the lot of them.” His career really began to kick off in the 1940s, and ‘50s, when he nabbed small roles in masterpieces like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes.
After the Carry On franchise’s success, Phillips turned to more serious pictures in the ‘80s with supporting roles in Sydney Pollack’s Out Of Africa and Steven Spielberg’s Empire Of The Sun. His expansive resume also includes King Ralph opposite Peter O’Toole, Anthony Hopkins’ directorial debut, August (1996), the Bruce Willis-led The Jackal, Saving Grace, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Color Me Kubrick (2005). He even performed with Vivian Leigh at the Royal Shakespeare Company, in a 1996 production of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Beyond a single individual work, Phillips will also be well-remembered for his “Ding Dong” catchphrase. He debuted the classic quip in Carry On Nurse, a 1959 entry into the Carry On franchise. His other catchphrase—loyal to his Casanova roots—was a sultry, elongated “Hello,” usually aimed in the direction of a beautiful woman. The latter lent the title to Phillips’ autobiography, released in 2012.
“I’ve lost a wonderful husband and the public has lost a truly great showman,” his wife Zara Phillips told The Sun of Phillips’ passing. “He was quite simply a national treasure. People loved him. He was mobbed everywhere he went.”
14 Comments
He was the most famous man to ever play a hat.
*straw boater punches through self*
He has 174 imdb credits going back to the 30sEmpire of the Sun is underrated
Empire of the Sun is underrated
I guess it is, but not by me. I loved that movie.
John Malkovich is one of the best-ever Fagins
Oh hello, this is sad news .98 is a good run though.
It’s remarkable that he performed at the RSC with Vivien Leigh in 1996, considering she died in 1967
He even performed with Vivian Leigh at the Royal Shakespeare Company, in a 1996 production of The Merry Wives of WindsorWell. The year’s wrong on that one since Leigh died in 1967…
This is kind of mystifying. Vivien Leigh’s wikipedia page, which lists all of her theatrical roles, does not list her ever being in Merry Wives of Windsor Leslie Philipps did play Falstaff in a 1996 staging of the play, which however costarred Susannah Yorkhttps://theatricalia.com/play/1b/the-merry-wives-of-windsor/production/2z7
Vivien Leigh did a lot of Shakespeare on stage, but I could only find three Shakespeare plays Leigh did with the RSC—Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Titus Andronicus—all in the mid fifties when she was married to Lawrence Olivier. She was never in any production The Merry Wives of Windsor. At least not one of any note.Phillips did, indeed, play Falstaff in the 1996 RSC production. Vivien Leigh had been dead for 19 years at that point. She was a great actress, but it would have been a really neat trick if she’d been able do that play posthumously.Here’s Phillips rocking it as FalstaffVince Leigh played Frank Ford in the 2018 BBC release of the RSC production in the Globe Theatre. It should be noted that he was born two years after Vivien died and isn’t related.
Ding dong! A real legend in the UK – he was a less caddish version of Terry-Thomas.
I remember going through IMDB and being shocked he was this old and still alive. I was glad. We all gotta go sometime but 98 is a pretty good length of time. My one regret is he didn’t outlast Henry Kissenger.
He was marvelous as one of Peter O’Toole’s actor buddies in the underseen Venus. O’Toole, Phillips and Richard Griffiths were a great trio.
Seconded. He was cracking in that role.