Carry On star Leslie Phillips dies aged 98 after long illness
>
Carry On star Leslie Phillips, who caused laughter across the country, has died aged 98.
The actor – best known for his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ slogans – had battled a long illness.
Younger fans will know his voice from the Harry Potter movies where he was the sound of the Sorting Hat.
Phillips, the star of 150 films, suffered a life-threatening stroke in 2015 and has been recovering at his home in recent years.
He would fondly remember how he would be asked by fans for generations to say his slogans “a million times.”
Unbelievable that Phillips originally had a London accent when he was younger, but he had speech lessons to adopt the cut glass style he became famous for.
His life was hit by tragedy after the suicide in 2011 of his second wife, former Bond girl Angela Scoular.
Mr. Phillips was best known for his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ catchphrases during a career in which he appeared in 150 films.
Barbara Roscoe and Leslie Phillips bond during an earlier film in his career that lasts until his death at age 98
Leslie Phillips drank a glass of wine in 1975. He had suffered a massive stroke in his later years, but had struggled to recover
Leslie Phillips with his new wife Zara Carr at their wedding blessing at St Mark’s Church in Maida Vale in December 2013
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 2015 attack that followed a stroke.
In tribute, Zara, now 63, said, “I’ve lost a great husband and the public has lost a truly great showman.
“He was just a national treasure. People loved him. He was harassed everywhere he went.’
Tottenham-born film legend Leslie worked before the stroke, voiced the Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter films and acted in several British TV dramas, including the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Revolver and Agatha Christie’s Marple.
Born on April 20, 1924, into a working-class family, he made his first film appearances as a child in the 1930s.
Leslie Phillips with his wife Penelope Bartley and their daughter Caroline Elizabeth outside All Souls Church after her baptism, St John’s Wood, London, 4 May 1950
“Don’t lie there, say something!” starring Brian Rix, Joanna Lumley and Leslie Phillips in one of his notable roles
Actor Leslie Phillips looked friendly and relaxed with his many female co-stars during a photocall for TV show ‘Casanova’
He is considered the only living actor to perform at Pinewood Studios in the first week after its opening in 1936.
During World War II he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in 1943 and transferred to the Durham Light Infantry in 1944.
but heyis dead — nearly two years after Barbara Windsor died — means only Jim Dale is left of the Carry On movies that made him a huge star.
Phillips turned his back on a Hollywood career to join the Carry On cast and be with his wife Penny Bartley and their four children who were back in England.
His famous “I say, Ding Dong” expression of character Jack Bell in Carry On Nurse meant that he would be forever immortalized 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 been afraid of being typecast and told producer Peter Rogers he wasn’t 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 that he loved being “idolized” by the public, wishing people would “look beyond the lecherous twit I played.”
In one of his last interviews with The Dude in 2020, he said his slogans had followed him all his life with people constantly asking him to say them.
He said of the frequency, ‘Millions of times, and as for my other catchphrase, ‘Ding Dong!’, I couldn’t even count.
“But I’ve had a great career and I’ve been very lucky. One thing I have learned is that I would have liked to have spent more time with my children as they got older.”
He was awarded an OBE in 1998 and a CBE in 2008 for services to drama.