HELLL-000, GOODBYE

A working-class boy who made his name playing toffs, a natural optimist scarred by tragedy and a (mostly) devoted husband typecast as a womaniser, Carry On star Leslie Phillips has died at 98 after a life filled with contradiction

- Martin Phillips

THE man responsible for the smoothest “Helll-ooo!” in acting has said his final goodbye. Silver-tongued stage and film star Leslie Phillips has died at the age of 98. To a younger audience he was the voice of the audience he was the voice of the sorting hat in the Harry Potter movies.

To an older generation, he will always be the moustache-twirling, archetypal cad or lecherous medic from the Carry On and Doctor movies.

But in a career spanning an unrivalled three-quarters of a century, and more than 200 films, television and radio series, there was so much more in between.

In spite of his early comedy roles, which made him a household name, his life was repeatedly coloured by tragedy and his succession of roles as a rakish toff could hardly have been further removed from his humble background.

Although known for his plummy accent, Leslie Phillips was born into a working-class family in Tottenham, north London, and his father, a factory worker who made gas appliances, died from rheumatic fever aged 44, when Leslie was just nine.

He later recalled seeing his dad’s body laid out in an open coffin in the front room for days. “He wasn’t properly prepared. His face went an extraordinary colour, fungus grew on his ears and nose. For a few days it was continuous crying and screaming,” he said.

That horror was soon followed by the grim reality of poverty, as his elder siblings had to go out to work and his mother took in sewing to try to provide for the family.

The actor once said: “We were deprived, no question about it. I was the baby and I saw how you had to work in life if you want to succeed.”