Siân Phillips
- Acting
- May 14, 1933 · Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Glamorgan, Wales
Biography
Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips DBE (born 14 May 1933), known professionally as Siân Phillips, is a Welsh actress, author and singer. Phillips was the daughter of Sally (née Thomas), a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman. She is a Welsh-speaker and 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. She attended Pontardawe Grammar School and later read English and Philosophy at University College Cardiff, graduating in 1955. She entered RADA in LOndon, England with a scholarship in September 1955, the same year as Diana Rigg and Glenda Jackson. She went on to win the prestigious Bancroft Gold Medal for Hedda Gabler and was offered work in Hollywood when she left RADA. While still a student she was offered three film contracts, entailing her to work for an extended period of time in the United States; but she declined, preferring to work on stage instead.
Known for
Filmography
- Frank and Percy
- Richard Burton: Wild Genius · Self
- Emperor: Rise & Fall of a Dynasty · Narrator
- Apple Cider Vinegar · Voice
- Alec Guinness: A Class Act · Self
- Doctor Who · Enid Meadows
- Siân Phillips at 90 · Self
- Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba · Self
- Remembers… · Self
- Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends · Self
- The Chelsea Detective · Grandma Dix
- Wonders of the Celtic Deep · Self
- A Year in the Beacons · Narrator
- National Theatre Live: Under Milk Wood · Mrs Utah Watkins / Polly Garter / Mrs Beyon
- Dream Horse · Maureen
- A Christmas Carol · Grandmother / narrator (Voice)
- Summerland · Margaret Corey
- McDonald & Dodds · Agnes Gillian
- National Theatre Live: Les Blancs · Madame Neilsen
- Time & Again · Eleanor
- Be Happy! · Maria
- Good Omens · Mr. Henderson
- Nureyev · Narrator
- To Provide All People · Patient
- Miss Dalí · Anna Maria Dalí
- Voyageuse · Erica
- Hochelaga, Land of Souls · Sarah Walker
- Aberfan: The Green Hollow
- Under Milk Wood · Mrs. Pugh
- A Picture of London · Narrator
- Playhouse Presents · May
- Lovesong · Maggie
- The Mountain That Had To Be Painted · Narrator
- Lewis · Adele Goffe
- The 50 Greatest Television Dramas · Self
- The Murder Room · Marie Strickland
- Still: Here/Now · Self
- The Last Detective · Vera Dulciman
- Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film · Self
- Stalin: Inside the Terror · Narrator
- I, Claudius: A Television Epic · Self
- Attila · Grandmother
- Cinderella: The ITV Pantomime · Evil Baroness
- Come and Go · Ru
- The Magician's House · Meg Lewis
- Aristocrats · Narrator/Older Lady Emily Lennox
- Alice Through the Looking Glass · Red Queen
- The Scold's Bridle · Mathilda Gillespie
- The Scold's Bridle · Mathilda
- Arthouse · Self
- Midsomer Murders · Lady Annabel Butler
- La Femme Nikita · Adrian
- Ivanhoe · Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine
- House of America · Mam
- Silent Witness · Beattie Elletson
- The Mousehole Cat · Narrator
- The Vacillations of Poppy Carew · Calypso
- The Return of the Borrowers · Mrs. Driver
- The Age of Innocence · Mrs. Archer
- Heidi · Frau Sesemann
- The Sherman Plays · Self
- The Borrowers · Mrs. Driver
- The Chestnut Soldier · Nain Griffiths
- Tonight at 8.30 · Clare Wedderburn, Barbara Faber
- The Black Candle · Daisy Barnett
- Emlyn's Moon · Nain Griffiths
- Perfect Scoundrels · Mother Aloysius
- Red Empire · Narrator (Voice)
- Dark River · Mrs. Blessington
- Valmont · Madame de Volanges
- Shadow of the Noose · Lady Scott
- Agatha Christie's Poirot · Mrs. Laura Upward
- David Macaulay: Pyramid · Mersyankh (Voice)
- The Snow Spider · Nain Griffiths
- The Snow Spider · Nain Griffiths
- Vanity Fair · Matilda Crawley
- When Reason Sleeps · Miss Drake
- A Killing on the Exchange · Isobel Makepeace
- The Two Mrs. Grenvilles · Duchess of Windsor
- Ewoks: The Battle for Endor · Charal