The cockney lad who became a Hollywood toff: Leslie Phillips’s life

Leslie Phillips was beloved by millions for his rakish charm, the outrageous comic characters he perfected in the Carry On films and his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ catchphrases, which he said ‘millions of times’ for fans.

But away from the big screen the star, who died yesterday aged 98, suffered a series of terrible tragedies in his life including the deaths of two of his wives and battling shell shock while fighting in the Second World War.

His first wife Penny Bartley was killed in a house fire in 1981. He had stayed in touch with her even after their 1965 divorce, calling the split one of the great failures of his life. 

And then in 2011 he was rocked by the suicide of his second wife, the former Bond girl Angela Scoular. She was suffering from bowel cancer and depression and took her own life. Phillips was too ill to attend the inquest into her death three months later.

But he found love again with Turkish social worker Zara Carr, then 50, who he married in front of two witnesses in Mayfair in 2013. Afterwards, Phillips, ever the joker, quipped that his new wife shared the same name as the Queen’s granddaughter, Zara Phillips.

His acting career stretched back to 1938 and spanned more than 70 years. He was best known in the UK for his Carry On parts even though he only appeared in three of them. Phillips also enjoyed an international audience after starring in a string of hits including voicing the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter and appearing in hit movies including Empire of the Sun, The Jackal, Out of Africa, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Venus, alongside Peter O’Toole.

His Hollywood stardom – and the riches it brought – was a far cry from his humble roots in Tottenham, north London, where his life was changed by a talent for acting and elocution lessons that helped him win the parts that made him famous.      

Mr Phillips, famous for his leery ladies’ man, roguish, upper-class roles, was a great comedy actor who yearned to get out of what he called ‘that rut’ and concentrate on heavier and more serious parts.

To some extent he succeeded, but even so he will always be remembered above all else for the outrageous comic characters he perfected in the Carry On films and elsewhere.

But although the Carry On films – he appeared in three of them – were his major claim to fame, Phillips was almost scornful about them in later years.

He said: ‘In the old days the Carry On films would have died a natural death after doing the rounds at the cinemas.

‘But then television came along and they were absolutely flogged to death, all over the world. Someone’s made quite a lot of money out of them, but not those of us who acted in them.’

Phillips was the type of actor who could never be persuaded to retire.

Once he told an interviewer: ‘If you are asking when will I retire, then the answer is never. I intend to die on the job.’

Although he was famous for his come-hither, aristocratic tones, Phillips was born and brought up in London, speaking much of the time what is now called estuary English.

He took elocution lessons to enable him to speak ‘proper’ English, which in his early days was an essential part of any actor’s equipment.

He was born in Tottenham, north London, on April 20 1924. He attended Chingford School and later the Italia Conti Stage School.

Then he served as a lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry from 1942 until 1945, when he was invalided out, suffering from shell shock.

Phillips said of his experiences: ‘The beginning of my trouble was continuous bombardment and the bangs. It was nerve-wracking with aeroplanes flying over and shooting them down.

‘I used to get a sort of paralysis on the left side of the body. I suppose it was a form of shell-shock. I never really recovered.’

In 1945 he went to a hospital in north London with ‘people who had every known kind of problem – it was a great mess of people who were suffering’.

He went on: ‘To be honest, I never thought I’d survive the war. I always thought, ‘Any minute now I’ll be bloody killed’, so I was quite surprised to be alive.’

He was soon back in the limelight and began to get leading roles on the stage and screen from the early 1950s.

But Phillips began making serious inroads into film from 1955 and his foxy charm was seen to good effect in Brothers In Law, The Smallest Show On Earth and The Man Who Liked Funerals.

In that film he played the star role of a man who blackmailed the bereaved in a good cause.

He became well known for his appearances in the Doctor films, as well as in a series of fast-moving comedies that teamed him with Scots comedian and impressionist Stanley Baxter.

They began with the prisoner-of-war caper Very Important Person and continued with Crooks Anonymous, The Fast Lady and Father Came Too, about a disastrous honeymoon.

Within the space of five years Phillips had made 18 starring comedies, but the output of comedy from British studios had suddenly become quite restricted during the 1960s.

After making Doctor In Clover, Phillips made a disastrous career switch by starring in Maroc 7, a woeful spy thriller.

But things were looking up for him on television, especially with Our Man At St Mark’s.

He returned to films in the late 1980s in largely comedy character roles.

Like most of his contemporaries, he did a stint in Hollywood, but he preferred Britain.

‘I could have stayed,’ he said once, ‘but I am a Londoner through and through. I want to go everywhere, but I will always want to live in London. So I came back.’

It was in the mid-1980s that he decided to become a serious actor. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and played roles such as Falstaff in The Merry Wives Of Windsor.

But fine all-round actor though he was, his huge following preferred him as the saucy seaside postcard character.

Phillips was awarded the OBE in 1998.

His first marriage, in 1948 to Penelope Bartley, was dissolved in 1965. They had two sons and two daughters.

He said that they ‘drifted apart’ because of his work in the United States but he counted the failure of that marriage as the greatest tragedy of his life.

In 1982 he married his second wife Angela Scoular and the couple remained together until her death in April 2011.

Scoular was suffering from bowel cancer and depression and took her own life.

Phillips was too ill to attend the inquest into Scoular’s death three months later.

A long-term fan of Tottenham Hotspur, he appeared on the pitch as part of the half-time entertainment during the team’s home match against Swansea City in 2012.

In December 2013, Phillips, aged 89, married Zara Carr, his third wife.

He suffered a stroke while on a shopping trip with his wife in London in August 2014.

A few months later, Phillips was again admitted to hospital after suffering a seizure.

Phillips had a wide variety of interests outside the theatre, including cars, racing, gardening, classical music, weaving, chess and all sport.

In 2014 he also starred in the gothic mystery film Darkheart Manor alongside Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One and Two actor Nick Moran.

Carry On star Leslie Phillips best known for his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ catchphrases and voicing the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter dies aged 98 peacefully in his sleep as his wife pays tribute to ‘national treasure’

Carry On star Leslie Phillips who brought laughter to front rooms across the nation has died aged 98.

The actor – best known for his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ catchphrases – had been battling a long illness.

Younger fans will know his voice from the Harry Potter films where he was the sound of the Sorting Hat.

Phillips, the star of 150 films, suffered a life-threatening stroke in 2015, and was recovering at his home over the past few years.

He would fondly remember how he would be asked to say his catchphrases ‘millions of times’ by fans spanning generations.

Incredibly Phillips originally had a London accent when he was younger, but had elocution lessons to adopt the dulcet tones he became famous for.

But for a figure best-known for comedy, his personal life had been dogged with tragedy. 

His ex-wife Penny Bartley – who he stayed in touch with even after their divorce – was killed in a house fire in 1981.

And then in 2011 he was rocked by the suicide of his second wife, the former Bond girl Angela Scoular. 

But he found love again and married third wife Zara Carr in December 2013.

She gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation when he turned ‘black and blue’ during a seizure in 2015, which had followed a stroke. 

Paying tribute, Zara, now 63, said: ‘I’ve lost a wonderful husband and the public has lost a truly great showman.

‘He was quite simply a national treasure. People loved him. He was mobbed everywhere he went.’

Tottenham-born film legend Leslie was still working before the stroke, voicing the Sorting Hat of the Harry Potter films and acting in several British TV dramas including the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Revolver and Agatha Christie’s Marple.

He was born on April 20, 1924, into a working class family and made his first film appearances as a child in the 1930s.

He is believed to be the only actor still alive who performed at Pinewood Studios in its first week after opening in 1936.

During the Second World War, he was commissioned in 1943 as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, and transferred to the Durham Light Infantry in 1944.

But his death – nearly two years after Barbara Windsor passed away – means only Jim Dale is left from the Carry On films that made him a huge star.

Phillips turned his back on a Hollywood career to join the Carry On cast and to be with wife, Penny Bartley and their four children who were back in England.

His famous ‘I say, Ding Dong’ catchphrase of character Jack Bell in Carry On Nurse meant he would be forever immortalised in comedy.

In total he appeared in four Carry On films, the early Carry On Nurse, Carry On Teacher and Carry On Constable.

He may have feared being typecast and told producer Peter Rogers he was not keen on returning to the franchise.

But in 1992 he starred in Carry On Columbus, thrilling fans of the original series of films.

He later revealed he loved being ‘idolised’ by the public, he wished people would ‘look beyond the lecherous twit I played’.

In one of his last interview with The Chap in 2020 he said his catchphrases had followed him his entire life with people constantly requesting he say them.

He said of the frequency: ‘Millions of times, and as for my other catch phrase, ‘Ding Dong!’, I couldn’t even count.

‘But I have had a marvellous career and I am very fortunate. One thing I have learnt is that I would have liked to spend more time with my children as they grew up.’

He was made an OBE in 1998 and a CBE in 2008 for services to drama. 

He is survived by Zara and his four children.