Siân Phillips
Acting • Born 1933-05-14
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.
Filmography
113 credits
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
Movie • 2007
Self
Dune
Movie • 1984
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Clash of the Titans
Movie • 1981
Cassiopeia
The Mountain That Had To Be Painted
Movie • 2011
Narrator
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
Movie • 1985
Charal
The Age of Innocence
Movie • 1993
Mrs. Archer
The Snow Spider
Movie • 1988
Nain Griffiths
Emlyn's Moon
Movie • 1990
Nain Griffiths
National Theatre Live: Under Milk Wood
Movie • 2021
Mrs Utah Watkins / Polly Garter / Mrs Beyon
The Chestnut Soldier
Movie • 1991
Nain Griffiths
Murphy's War
Movie • 1971
Hayden
Under Milk Wood
Movie • 1972
Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard
Becket
Movie • 1964
Gwendolen
Valmont
Movie • 1989
Madame de Volanges
The Murder Room
Movie • 2004
Marie Strickland
Eh, Joe?
Movie • 1966
Voice
Come and Go
Movie • 2000
Ru
A Picture of London
Movie • 2012
Narrator
Young Cassidy
Movie • 1965
Ella
Nijinsky
Movie • 1980
Lady Ripon
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
Movie • 2022
Self
Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill
Movie • 1974
Mrs. Patrick Campbell
The Doctor and the Devils
Movie • 1985
Annabella Rock
Under Milk Wood
Movie • 2014
Mrs. Pugh
The Scold's Bridle
Movie • 1998
Mathilda Gillespie
Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
Movie • 2022
Self
It’s Dearer After Midnight
Movie • 1968
Jo
Apple Cider Vinegar
Movie • 2024
Voice
Thief
Movie • 1968
Woman
Don Juan in Hell
Movie • 1962
Dona Ana
Lovesong
Movie • 2012
Maggie
The Black Candle
Movie • 1991
Daisy Barnett
Siân Phillips at 90
Movie • 2023
Self
Aberfan: The Green Hollow
Movie • 2016
Stalin: Inside the Terror
Movie • 2003
Narrator
The Vacillations of Poppy Carew
Movie • 1995
Calypso
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Movie • 1998
Red Queen
Dark River
Movie • 1990
Mrs. Blessington
House of America
Movie • 1997
Mam
Heartbreak House
Movie • 1977
Hesione Hushabye
Hochelaga, Land of Souls
Movie • 2017
Sarah Walker
Voyageuse
Movie • 2018
Erica
The Mousehole Cat
Movie • 1995
Narrator
Miss Dalí
Movie • 2018
Anna Maria Dalí
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Movie • 1969
Ursula Mossbank
To Provide All People
Movie • 2018
Patient
David Macaulay: Pyramid
Movie • 1989
Mersyankh (voice)
A Christmas Carol
Movie • 2020
Grandmother / narrator (voice)
How Many Miles to Babylon?
Movie • 1982
Mrs Alicia Moore
Nureyev
Movie • 2018
Narrator
Dream Horse
Movie • 2021
Maureen
Aristocrats
Movie • 1999
Narrator/Older Lady Emily Lennox
Be Happy!
Movie • 2019
Summerland
Movie • 2020
Margaret Corey
The Longest Day
Movie • 1962
WRNS Officer (uncredited)
Time & Again
Movie • 2019
Eleanor
National Theatre Live: Les Blancs
Movie • 2019
Madame Neilsen
I, Claudius: A Television Epic
Movie • 2002
Self
Cinderella: The ITV Pantomime
Movie • 2000
Evil Baroness
Platonov
Movie • 1971
Anna
Carpathian Eagle
Movie • 1980
Mrs. Henska
Still: Here/Now
Movie • 2003
Self
Laughter in the Dark
Movie • 1969
Lady Pamela More
The Achurch Letters
Movie • 1977
Janet Achurch
Alec Guinness: A Class Act
Movie • 2024
self
Frank and Percy
Movie
Richard Burton: Wild Genius
Movie • 2025
Self
Animated Shakespeare | Macbeth
Movie • 1992
Traethydd/Narrator
The Magician's House
TV • 1999
Meg Lewis
La Femme Nikita
TV • 1997
Adrian
Perfect Scoundrels
TV • 1990
Mother Aloysius
A Year in the Beacons
TV • 2021
Narrator
Wonders of the Celtic Deep
TV • 2021
Self - Narrator
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles
TV • 1987
Duchess of Windsor
Good Omens
TV • 2019
Mr. Henderson
Hammer House of Horror
TV • 1980
Mrs. Henska
Arthouse
TV • 1997
Self - Commentary
The Return of the Borrowers
TV • 1993
Mrs. Driver
Warrior Queen
TV • 1978
Queen Boudicca
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Lady Lavery
Tales of the Unexpected
TV • 1979
Hermione
The Chelsea Detective
TV • 2022
Grandma Dix
Shoulder to Shoulder
TV • 1974
Emmeline Pankhurst
Heidi
TV • 1993
Frau Sesemann
Attila
TV • 2001
Grandmother
Ivanhoe
TV • 1997
Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine
McDonald & Dodds
TV • 2020
Agnes Gillian
The Last Detective
TV • 2003
Vera Dulciman
The Scold's Bridle
TV • 1998
Mathilda
Doctor Who
TV • 2024
Enid Meadows
Silent Witness
TV • 1996
Beattie Elletson
Midsomer Murders
TV • 1997
Lady Annabel Butler
Agatha Christie's Poirot
TV • 1989
Mrs. Laura Upward
Crime and Punishment
TV • 1979
Katerina Ivánovna
Emperor: Rise & Fall of a Dynasty
TV • 2024
Narrator
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
TV • 1981
Clementine Churchill
The Borrowers
TV • 1992
Mrs. Driver
The Magician's House
TV • 1999
Meg Lewis / Lutra the Otter (voice)
Playhouse
TV • 1974
Janet Achurch
Playhouse
TV • 1974
Alicia Moore
BBC Play of the Month
TV • 1965
Anna Voinitseva
BBC Play of the Month
TV • 1965
The Duchesse of Berwich
BBC Play of the Month
TV • 1965
Hesione Hushabye
The Sherman Plays
TV • 1993
Self - Introduction
Vanity Fair
TV • 1987
Matilda Crawley
Red Empire
TV • 1990
Narrator (voice)
I, Claudius
TV • 1976
Livia
Drama 61-67
TV • 1961
Carole Blair
How Green Was My Valley
TV • 1975
Beth Morgan
Remembers…
TV • 2022
Self
A Killing on the Exchange
TV • 1987
Isobel Makepeace
Shadow of the Noose
TV • 1989
Lady Scott
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
TV • 1979
Ann Smiley