Phillips was on stage at the age of 10, appearing as Peter Pan at the London Palladium. After a spell in the Army during World War II, he took up acting
as a profession in the 1950s. He began making inroads into films from 1955, and his foxy charm was
seen to good effect in Brothers
in Law (1957), The
Smallest Show on Earth (1957) and The Man Who Liked Funerals (1959),
in which he got his first star role as a man who blackmailed the bereaved
in a good cause. He became well-known for appearing in the 'Doctor'
films, and a series of fast-moving comedies that teamed Phillips with
Scots comedian and impressionist Stanley Baxter. These began with
the prisoner-of-war caper Very
Important Person (1961), and continued with Crooks
Anonymous (1962), The
Fast Lady (1962) and Father
Came Too (1963), about a disastrous honeymoon.
Within the space of five years, Phillips had made 18 starring comedies
but the output of comedy from British studios had suddenly become
quite restricted during the 1960's, however, and, after making Doctor
in Clover (1966), Phillips made a disastrous career switch by
starring in Maroc 7 (1967), a woeful spy thriller. He did better on
television, especially with Our Man at St Mark's, and came back to
films in the late 1980s in character roles. Phillips was appointed an OBE in 1996 in recognition of his acting career, and became a CBE in the 2007 New Year honours list.
