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Siân Phillips

 
Actor: Sian Phillips
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: 1934 in Bettws, Charmarthenshire, Wales
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '60s-'90s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Children's/Family
  • Career Highlights: I, Claudius, Valmont, House of America
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Other World of Winston Churchill (1967)

Biography

Actress Sian Phillips was performing on BBC radio's Welsh-language service at the age of 11. Phillips made her first British television appearance at 17; one year later, she won a Welsh acting award, which paid her way through RADA. She made her London stage debut in 1957, in a charity production of Hedda Gabler. From 1959 through 1979, Sian was the wife of actor Peter O'Toole, with whom she appeared in the 1964 film Becket and the 1969 movie musical Goodbye Mr. Chips. Almost too dynamic for "average" roles, Sian was an unforgettable Livia in the PBS miniseries I, Claudius, and brought a properly mystical bearing to her otherworldly characters in the film fantasies Clash of the Titans (1981) and Dune (1984). Her instinctive regality served her well as narrator of the 1967 documentary The Other World of Mr. Churchill and as the Duchess of Windsor in the made-for-TV The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1983). A more grounded-in-reality Sian was seen as Ann Smiley in the 1982 miniseries Smiley's People; most recently, she was the American aristocrat Mrs. Archer in The Age of Innocence (1993). A favorite daughter of her home country, Sian Phillips has served in the Welsh Arts Council and as a governor of the National Theatre of Wales, and has received the Welsh theatre world's ultimate accolade: a membership in the Honorary Order of Druids. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Siân Phillips
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Siân Phillips
Born Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips
14 May 1933 (1933-05-14) (age 76)
Betws, Ammanford, Wales, UK
Years active 1962 - present
Spouse(s) Peter O'Toole (1959-1979)
Robin Sachs (1979-1991)

Siân Phillips, CBE (pronounced IPA: [ʃɑːn 'fɪlɪps], born Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips; 14 May 1933)[1] is a Welsh actress.

Contents

Early life

Phillips was born in Betws, Ammanford, Wales, the daughter of Sally (née Thomas), a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman.[2][3] She is a Welsh-speaker: in the first volume of her autobiography (Private Faces) she notes that she spoke only Welsh for much of her childhood, learning English by listening to the radio. [4]

Career

Phillips has made many films and television programmes, but is probably best-known for her role as Livia in the BBC adaptation of Robert Graves' novel, I, Claudius (BBC2, 1976) and for many appearances on the original run of Call My Bluff. She also appeared opposite Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton in Becket (1964); as Ursula Mossbank in the musical film Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) again starring Peter O'Toole; once more opposite O'Toole in Murphy's War (1971); as Emmeline Pankhurst in the TV mini-series Shoulder to Shoulder (1974); as Ann, the unfaithful wife of Alec Guinness's character George Smiley, in the BBC1 espionage dramas Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982), adapted from John le Carré's novels of the same names; in Nijinsky (1980); and as the queen Cassiopeia in Clash of the Titans (1981). Another popular role was that of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam in David Lynch's Dune (1984). Her most recent film is The Gigolos (2006) by Richard Bracewell, in which she plays Lady James.

Phillips' West End credits include Pal Joey, Gigi, A Little Night Music, and Marlene, in which she portrayed Marlene Dietrich. She has also appeared on the American stage in Marlene.

In June 2000, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. She is also a leading light in Social, Welsh and Sexy (SWS), the London-based organisation for Welsh socialites.

Siân provided spoken word backing to a track on Rufus Wainwright's 2007 album Release the Stars, and appeared live with him at the Old Vic Theatre in London on 31 May/1 June 2007.

Phillips starred in London's West End production of Calendar Girls.

Personal life

She married Peter O'Toole and they had two daughters, Patricia and Kate (b. 1961). They subsequently divorced. She wrote about this tempestuous period of her life in the second volume of her autobiography, Public Places. She later married British actor Robin Sachs, from whom she is also now divorced. She continues to be a patron of the Bird College of Dance, Music & Theatre Performance, which is based in Sidcup, Kent.

References

  1. ^ GRO Register of Births: JUN 1933 11a 1644 LLANDILOFAWR - Jane E. A. Phillips, mmn = Thomas
  2. ^ BBC - South West Wales - Hall of Fame
  3. ^ Sian Phillips Biography
  4. ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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