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’
- Mr Phillips – once one of the county’s biggest comedic stars – has died aged 98 after battling a long illness
- The Tottenham-born actor was best-known for his roles in the Carry On films and their many catchphrases
- In very recent interview he recalled he was asked ‘millions of times’ to say them by generations of fans
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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 known 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.
Mr Phillips was best known for his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ catchphrases during a career of starring in 150 films
Leslie Phillips, June Whitfield, Barbara Windsor and Jack Douglas celebrating the Carry on 40th Anniversary in 1998
Barbara Roscoe and Leslie Phillips get close during a film from earlier in his career that last up until his death aged 98
Leslie Phillips drinking a glass of wine in 1975. He had suffered a huge stroke in his later years but had battled to recovery
Leslie Phillips with his new wife Zara Carr at their wedding blessing at St Mark’s Church in Maida Vale back in December 2013
His ex-wife Penny Bartley – who he stayed in touch with even after their divorce – was killed in a house fire in 1981 in tragedy
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.’
Leslie Phillips poses for a photo with Gary Mabbutt prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Swansea City at Wembley Stadium on September 16, 2017, in what was one of the last pictures of the screen icon
Leslie Phillips with his wife Penelope Bartley and their baby daughter Caroline Elizabeth outside All Souls Church following her christening, St John’s Wood, London, May 4 1950
‘Don’t Just Lie There, Say Something!’ which starred Brian Rix, Joanna Lumley and Leslie Phillips in one of his notable roles
Actor Leslie Phillips looked suave and relaxed with his many female co-stars at a photocall for TV programme ‘Casanova’
Freddy Fox – played by Leslie Phillips – and Grunhilde – played by Heidi Erich – together in the Fast Lady’ film from back in 1962
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.
Katie Prince and Leslie Phillips made an usual duo in December 2003 when they teamed up at the Comedy Awards together
Phillip’s life had been touched by tragedy after the 2011 suicide of his second wife, the former Bond girl Angela Scoular
Leslie Phillips in a Chichester production of Love For Love, a theatre play that showed his versatility as he trod the boards
Bob Monkhouse, Shirley Eaton, Irene Handl and Leslie Phillips in A Weekend With Lulu, directed by Carstairs John Paddy
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.
Leslie, seen in In The Doghouse, said he loved being ‘idolised’ by the public who looked ‘beyond the lecherous twit I played’
Veteran actor Leslie Phillips receives the Freedom of the City of London at The Guildhall on November 16, 2010 in London
Leslie Phillips at his beloved home in Maida Vale, London, taken on Oct 19, 2011, but still looking his debonair and suave self
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.
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‘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.
What happened to the rest of the Carry On stars?
Barbara Windsor
The 4ft 10in star Barbara Windsor first found fame in her role as a buxom blonde in the Carry On films – pictured in Carry On Again Doctor – and later became a household name playing Peggy Mitchell, the Queen Vic’s battle-axe landlady in BBC soap EastEnders
Dame Barbara Windsor lost her battle with Alzheimer’s at the age of 83 in December 2020.
Boris Johnson paid tribute saying she ‘cheered the world up with her own British brand of harmless sauciness and innocent scandal’ while David Walliams called her ‘the unofficial Queen of England’ and an ‘icon treasured by the nation’.
Famed for her infectious laugh and baring all in the Carry On films, the east London-born actress universally known as ‘Babs’, boasted a 66-year career in showbiz, first appearing on stage aged 13 before retiring aged 79 as dementia took its toll forcing the 4ft 10ins actress to stop playing fearsome landlady Peggy Mitchell on EastEnders.
Dame Barbara became one of the most famous faces on British screens for her fun-filled saucy roles in the Carry On comedies of the 1960s and 70s before before becoming the no-nonsense Queen Vic landlady Peggy Mitchell. As she bravely fought Alzheimer’s in the final years of her life, she turned her energies to campaigning to protect those with dementia, the vulnerable and the lonely as well her passionate support of the Armed Forces through the Poppy Appeal.
The actress – who was made a Dame by the Queen in 2016 – announced she was suffering from Alzheimer’s in 2018, having been diagnosed four years earlier. She moved to a care home in July, five months before she died.
Fenella Fielding
Former Carry On actress Fenella Fielding died from a stroke aged 90 in August 2018.
She appeared in two Carry On films – Carry On Regardless (1961) and Carry On Screaming! (1966) – and was awarded an OBE in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Fielding was born in London to a Lithuanian father and a Romanian mother. She is the younger sister of Basil Feldman, Baron Feldman, a former Conservative member of the House of Lords.
According to her website, her TV roles include The Avengers, The Prisoner and The Morecambe & Wise Show.
Perhaps her most famous role was as Valeria in Carry On Screaming! alongside Kenneth Williams.
Her 2017 memoir Do You Mind If I Smoke? is named after a line in the film.
In an interview with the Independent in 2008, Fielding said her roles in the Carry On films led to her being typecast.
She told the newspaper: ‘You get set on a path and, if you succeed, you get better parts, but of the same kind. If you don’t take a lot of trouble, you get stuck like that.
‘I’ve managed to get away from that, time and time again. But people still think of me in a certain way because of the Carry On films.’
Kenneth Williams
A series of unseen letters by comic legend Kenneth Williams (pictured) have come to light that showcase his wit and sensitivity
Kenneth Williams was one of the biggest stars of the Carry On franchise.
He previously served in the Royal Engineers in World War Two, but suffered from depression and struggled to come to terms with his homosexuality.
Other than his Carry On films, he was also a regular on the BBC Radio panel game show Just A Minute.
Williams was given his own TV variety series on BBC two called Meanwhile, which ran for 10 episodes in 1971.
He died aged 62 in April 1988. The cause of death was an overdose of barbiturates, but an inquest recorded an open verdict as it could not establish whether it was a suicide or an accident.
He lived in a string of rental flats in London and never found a partner, branding himself ‘asexual and celibate.’
Williams was once investigated by Scotland Yard after his father died after drinking carbon tetrachloride. He was never charged over his father’s death but he was denied a US visa when they discovered police had kept a file on him.
Sid James
South African-born Brit Sid James was one of the most recognisable comedic actors of the 50s and 60s.
Coming to prominence performing lovable rogues in TV and radio series, he found his greatest success in Carry On films.
He appeared in 19 movies in the series, usually portraying wise-cracking, lecherous characters, most of whom had his trademark laugh.
At the age of 54 he had a severe heart attack, something that led him to give up cigarettes, cut back on his meals and limit himself to three alcoholic drinks a night.
Valeria and Sidney James are pictured together at the film premiere of Spring And Port Wine in 1970
In 1976 Sid was on tour in a revival production of The Mating Season, when he had a heart attack on stage at the Sunderland Empire Theatre on April 26.
His co-star Olga Lowe initially though he was messing around when he failing to reply to her dialogue, but sought help when he didn’t respond to her ad-libs.
The curtain was closed and a doctor called, while the audience laughed, thinking it was part of the show. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
During their time together Sid had a highly public affair with Carry On co-star Barbara Windsor, a relationship which ended 16 months before his death.
Despite his philandering his wife Valeria James stuck by her husband and said she thought Ms Windsor had seduced him, claiming that she was ‘pushy and Sid was frightened of her and of her husband Ronnie Knight’.
Sid was a notorious womaniser, having seen his first marriage with Berthe Sadie Delmont collapse after four years due to his relationships with other women, while Ms Windsor described him as a ‘ladies man’.
Speaking after her life was dramatised for BBC biopic Babs in 2017 and she released her memoir, All Of Me, Ms Windsor described how Sid attempted to seduce her.
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