Leslie Phillips, the career British actor who voiced The Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter franchise among countless other roles, has died. Phillips’ agent Jonathan Lloyd confirms to the BBC that the 98-year-old performer and World War II veteran died peacefully in his sleep on Monday.
Known as an onscreen Casanova for decades before he joined The Wizarding World, Phillips starred in more than 170 roles across film and television throughout his lengthy career. He was known for starring in the Carry On and Doctor films in the 1950s and ‘60s—the Carry On franchise was enormous in Britain, spanning 31 films.
Born in 1924 in Tottenham, England, Phillips’ early years were a far cry from the luxurious lifestyle he portrayed onscreen. After his father died when he was 10, Phillips’ family sold their small home and began renting flats, struggling with financial troubles. Phillips’ way of helping out proved to be performing.
“Because I did plays at school, my mother [Cecelia] answered an advertisement for me to audition at the Italia Conti stage school,” Phillips told The Guardian in 2009. “By the age of 14, I was earning more than the lot of them.” His career really began to kick off in the 1940s, and ‘50s, when he nabbed small roles in masterpieces like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes.
After the Carry On franchise’s success, Phillips turned to more serious pictures in the ‘80s with supporting roles in Sydney Pollack’s Out Of Africa and Steven Spielberg’s Empire Of The Sun. His expansive resume also includes King Ralph opposite Peter O’Toole, Anthony Hopkins’ directorial debut, August (1996), the Bruce Willis-led The Jackal, Saving Grace, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Color Me Kubrick (2005). He even performed with Vivian Leigh at the Royal Shakespeare Company, in a 1996 production of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Beyond a single individual work, Phillips will also be well-remembered for his “Ding Dong” catchphrase. He debuted the classic quip in Carry On Nurse, a 1959 entry into the Carry On franchise. His other catchphrase—loyal to his Casanova roots—was a sultry, elongated “Hello,” usually aimed in the direction of a beautiful woman. The latter lent the title to Phillips’ autobiography, released in 2012.
“I’ve lost a wonderful husband and the public has lost a truly great showman,” his wife Zara Phillips told The Sun of Phillips’ passing. “He was quite simply a national treasure. People loved him. He was mobbed everywhere he went.”