Debonair British actor Leslie Phillips, who is famous for voicing the Sorting Hat in Warner Bros’ Harry Potter franchise died at 98 on Monday.
Leslie Phillips Cause of Death
The sophisticated Leslie Phillips died peacefully in his sleep, said agent Jonathan Lloyd to BBC on Tuesday. Zara, Philips’ wife wrote in an emotional statement that she lost her beloved husband and the world lost an actual “showman.”
“He was a national treasure and people loved him,” she added. “He was mobbed everywhere he went and when we married he introduced me as ‘royalty’ to the press, indicating I was the new Zara Phillips.”
Piers Morgan wrote on his Twitter that Leslie Phillips was a “superb comedy actor,” and had a “wonderful character.” Meanwhile, Transporting author Irvine Welsh wrote, “Sorry to hear that Leslie Phillips has passed…we used to have few nice exchanges on Twitter.”
Leslie Phillips was reportedly suffering from a major health condition and the actor suffered two strokes in a row in 2014.
The Casanova of the Carry-On movies has played more than 170 characters across screens big and small, as military officials, judges, reverends, and policemen. But unanimously for the audiences of the 1950s and ‘60s, he was the face of the Carry On and Doctor series. He even focused on serious supporting roles in Empire of the Sun and Out of Africa, before committing to the Harry Potter universe by distancing himself from playboy roles.
The legendary actor got his big break in Gene Kelly’s 1957 flick, Les Girls. After creating an impression for his two-year-long running radio series, The Navy Lark, Leslie Phillips was chosen to star in his first three Carry-On movies. His landmark career in Hollywood was then built after he appeared opposite the off and on-screen pair Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers in The Smallest Show on Earth.
McKenna once overheard a conversation between the British actress Kay Kendall and director George Cukor. She apparently asked him who the funny blonde actor was to which McKenna recalled that she should have yelled “Leslie Phillips!” said McKenna in 2013 documentary Hello.
He followed his success with the comedy Doctor in Love, which portrayed more of his flirtatious side. But soon, he was fed up with such roles and told BBC “I felt I was in a bit of a rut.” Per Leslie Phillips, he didn’t think the genre to be a rut, as he respected anyone who would choose to stay in the rut, but he had to get out from that boundary somehow.
The following years strengthened Phillip’s roots. He voiced the Sorting Hat, the enchanted wizard’s cap, in three of the Harry Potter flicks. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Even Harry Potter fans might not recognize the saga from his name, but they would immediately identify his voice as the Sorting Hat. he made his final appearance in the film After Death and completed another project named “Darkheart Manor” before his death, and the film is yet to be released.
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The actor, who was better known for his catchphrases, “Ding dong,” “I say,” and “Well, hello” talked about its popularity in his memoir which was published in 2012.
“The first time when I uttered those words, I never thought it would become so inescapably linked with me in the minds of the people for the next 50 years and so on. Even today, I am frequently Ding-Donged in the streets of London.”
The entertainment icon was born on April 20, 1924, in Tottenham, North London. He studied dance, elocution, and drama at the Italia Conti Stage School, before heading to serve as a lieutenant during World War II. It was after the war that he started to gain traction in multiple roles. Sometime in the 1980s, Leslie Phillips joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and even played roles like Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Despite his major success, he was typecast as a wise-cracking womaniser. In fact, his pals used to mention him as “King Leer” after he played the role of “King Liar” in the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Leslie Phillips is survived by his third wife Zara and his 4 children, whom he shared with his first wife Penelope Bartley. After splitting from his former wife, Leslie Phillips tied the knot with actress Angela Solucar in 1982. The couple remained husband and wife until she passed away in April 2011. Later, the Holby City alum married Zara in 2013.
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