Leslie Phillips

Phillips made his stage debut in 1937 as a wolf in Peter Pan alongside Anna Neagle at the London Palladium.[13][14] In the 1938–39 season, he was promoted to the role of John Napoleon Darling, alongside Jean Forbes-Robertson as Peter and Seymour Hicks as Captain Hook.[6] Acting allowed Phillips to earn extra money for his family, who had struggled financially after his father's death.[8]

Phillips made his first film appearance in the 1938 musical comedy Lassie from Lancashire.[15] He made further uncredited appearances in Climbing High (1938) and The Mikado (1939), among the earliest films made at Pinewood Studios.[6] Upon the 70th anniversary of the studios in 2006, Phillips considered himself one of the earliest actors to have worked there still alive and working.[6] A minor part in Ealing Studios' The Proud Valley (1940) afforded Phillips the chance to work alongside Paul Robeson, whom he greatly admired.[6]

In the early years of the Second World War, Phillips worked in the West End for Binkie Beaumont and H. M. Tennent.[8] The shows were frequently interrupted by air-raid sirens and Phillips later recalled that "audiences would evaporate and head for cellars or Underground stations".[6] Called up to the British Army in 1942, Phillips rose to the rank of lance-bombardier in the Royal Artillery. Due to his acquired upper class accent, Phillips was selected for officer training at Catterick and duly commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in 1943.[11] He was transferred to the Durham Light Infantry in 1944 but was later declared unfit for service just before D-Day after being diagnosed with a neurological condition that caused partial paralysis.[11] He was initially sent to a psychiatric hospital in error before moving to the correct facility for treatment.[6]

Demobbed as a lieutenant in December 1944, Phillips' acting career initially took in "the murkiest rat-infested old playhouses and music halls in the north of England".[6] He resumed his career as a film player, making uncredited appearances in Anna Karenina and Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (both 1948).[5] His first lead role in a television serial was in the sitcom My Wife Jacqueline (1952).[6]

His big break in the films was in the Gene Kelly musical Les Girls (1957).[11] Although the film was a critical success, he decided against a move to Hollywood, in part as he considered himself primarily a theatre actor and did not want to become "the poor man's David Niven".[8][14] He began appearing in character roles in British comedy films including Brothers in Law and The Smallest Show on Earth (both 1957).[4] In 1959, Phillips was cast in a minor role as Jack Bell in Carry On Nurse, the second in the Carry On film series. The character's exclamation of "Ding dong" in the film became a popular catchphrase for Phillips.[4] He became strongly associated with smooth-talking, libidinous roles, and his catchphrases "Ding dong", "I say" and "Hello" entered common usage in the United Kingdom.[16] Phillips cemented his image in two further Carry On films, Carry On Teacher (1959) and Carry On Constable (1960) before telling producer Peter Rogers that he did not wish to appear in any more.[11][4] Carry On director Gerald Thomas cast Phillips in several other comedy films; Please Turn Over (1959) features Phillips as Dr. Henry Manners, a respectable family doctor portrayed as a philanderer in a book written by 17-year-old Jo Halliday (Julia Lockwood), while he plays father David Robinson opposite Geraldine McEwan in No Kidding (1960).[17][18]

Between 1959 and 1977, Phillips became familiar on radio, as Sub-Lieutenant Phillips in the comedy The Navy Lark alongside Jon Pertwee and Ronnie Barker.[19] He also appeared in the film version of The Navy Lark (1959), the only cast member of the radio series to do so.[20]

In 1960, Phillips was cast in Doctor in Love, the fourth film in the Doctor comedy series and the first without Dirk Bogarde.[4] He appeared in two further installments, Doctor in Clover (1966) and Doctor in Trouble (1970).[21] Phillips appeared in several comedy films directed by Ken Annakin, often cast alongside his Doctor co-star James Robertson Justice, including Very Important Person (1961), Raising the Wind (1961) and Crooks Anonymous (1962).[6] In 1962, Phillips and Justice starred with Stanley Baxter in Annakin's The Fast Lady, one of Britain's biggest box office hits of the year.[22] A loose sequel, Father Came Too!, followed in 1964.[23]

During the 1960s, Phillips appeared on television in two plays penned by the comedy writing team Galton and Simpson; "Impasse", broadcast as part of Comedy Playhouse in 1963, and "The Suit", a 1969 episode of The Galton & Simpson Comedy.[6] The latter was developed into a full series four years later, Casanova '73, starring Phillips as compulsive philanderer Henry Newhouse.[24] The programme was poorly received and attracted criticism from Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association for its risque content.[6][25]

By the early 1980s, Phillips considered his suave and lecherous roles to be "a bit of a rut" and looked to branch out into dramatic roles.[4] A relatively minor part in Out of Africa (1985) facilitated a larger role in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987).[12] To play an emaciated prisoner of war in the film, Phillips lost more than two stone.[5] He became busy as a character actor in both stage and television productions including Scandal (1989) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). In 1992, he returned to the Carry On series in the poorly-received Carry On Columbus.[26] Phillips also provided the voice for the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films, appearing in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).[4][27]

Phillips appeared in British television sitcoms including Honey for Tea with Felicity Kendal and appeared in guest roles in popular series such as The Bill, Holby City and Midsomer Murders. In 2006, he played veteran actor Ian alongside Peter O'Toole in Hanif Kureishi's film Venus.[4] For this role, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in 2007.[28] Phillips' autobiography, Hello, was published by Orion in 2006.[6]

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1998 Birthday Honours and was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.[13]

Phillips, in conjunction with Jules Williams and Back Door Productions,[29] co-produced the Sky Arts series Living The Life[30] which ran for three series, ending in 2013.

He continued to act until 2012[31][32] and continued to make television appearances until 2015 when he was interviewed on the BBC One programme VE Day: Remembering Victory.[1][2][3]

• The Navy Lark (1959–1977)[4]
• Three Men in a Boat (1962)[64]
• The TV Lark (1963)[65]

• Voice of Gex in the European release of Gex: Enter the Gecko[66][67]
• Voice of cat in Iams advertising[68]
• Voice of the captain of the Virgin Atlantic safety video (1996–2004)[69]