Carry On star Leslie Phillips, who brought laughter to living rooms across the country, has passed away aged 98.
Known for his ‘Ding Dog’, ‘Well, Hello’, and ‘I Say’ sayings, the actor had been suffering from a lengthy illness.
Younger fans might remember his voice from the Harry Potter movies, in which he did the voiceover for the Sorting Hat.
Actor Leslie Phillips, who starred in 150 movies, suffered a life-threatening stroke in 2015 and had been recuperating at home.
He would fondly remember how generations of fans would ask him to repeat his famous sayings ‘millions of times’.
Leslie Phillips, instantly recognisable for his harmonious, RP tones, had an original London accent but received elocution lessons to improve it, but despite his light-hearted humour, he had a tragic private life.
His ex-wife Penny Bartley, who he stayed in contact with after their divorce, was killed in a house fire in 1981, and in 2011 he was rocked by the suicide of his second wife, the former Bond Girl Angela Scoular, but he discovered love again and married third wife Zara Carr in December 2013.
During a seizure in 2015, after a stroke, Zara Carr gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Paying tribute to her late husband, Zara Carr, now 63, said that she’s lost a wonderful husband and that the public has lost a truly wonderful showman, and she said that he was quite simply a national treasure. People adored him, and he was mobbed everywhere he went.
Tottenham-born film legend Leslie Phillips was still performing before the stroke, voicing the Sorting Hat of the Harry Potter movies 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 appearance as a child in the 1930s.
He’s thought 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, almost two years after Barbara Windsor passed away, means only Jim Dale is left from the Carry On films that made him a huge star.
Despite his brilliant personality and well-lived life, he was always the gentleman playing the scoundrel.
All of my life this man brought laughter into my home, but now we’ve lost one of our loveliest old luvvies. His personality was never spiteful or snide to get a laugh and he really knew how to flirt which was the sense of his fun.
Wasn’t he just amazing and he gave so many people so much joy with that fabulous dirty voice of his?
He was great with that old-school charm of his, but sadly today, that wit of his would be cancelled.
He was indeed a credit to our entertainment industry and a pleasure to watch on TV.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 