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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
May 14, 1933
Place of Birth
Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Glamorgan, Wales
Also Known As
- Sian Phillips
- Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips
Siân Phillips
1.0 Popularity
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
8.0
Self
Richard Burton: Wild Genius
2025
8.0
Narrator
Emperor: Rise & Fall of a Dynasty
2024
8.0
Voice
Apple Cider Vinegar
2024
6.0
self
Alec Guinness: A Class Act
2024
6.4
Enid Meadows
Doctor Who
2024
🎬
0.0
Self
Siân Phillips at 90
2023
7.8
Self
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
2022
8.0
Self
Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
2022
6.2
Grandma Dix
The Chelsea Detective
2022
0.0
Self - Narrator
Wonders of the Celtic Deep
2021
Credits
Richard Burton: Wild Genius
as Self
2025
8.0
Emperor: Rise & Fall of a Dynasty
as Narrator
2024
8.0
Apple Cider Vinegar
as Voice
2024
8.0
Alec Guinness: A Class Act
as self
2024
6.0
Doctor Who
as Enid Meadows
2024
6.4
🎬
Siân Phillips at 90
as Self
2023
0.0
Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba
as Self
2022
7.8
Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
as Self
2022
8.0
The Chelsea Detective
as Grandma Dix
2022
6.2
Wonders of the Celtic Deep
as Self - Narrator
2021
0.0
A Year in the Beacons
as Narrator
2021
0.0
National Theatre Live: Under Milk Wood
as Mrs Utah Watkins / Polly Garter / Mrs Beyon
2021
0.0
Dream Horse
as Maureen
2021
7.0
A Christmas Carol
as Grandmother / narrator (voice)
2020
7.5
Summerland
as Margaret Corey
2020
7.5
McDonald & Dodds
as Agnes Gillian
2020
7.6
National Theatre Live: Les Blancs
as Madame Neilsen
2019
6.0
Time & Again
as Eleanor
2019
9.0
Be Happy!
2019
5.5
Good Omens
as Mr. Henderson
2019
8.0
Nureyev
as Narrator
2018
7.3
🎬
To Provide All People
as Patient
2018
6.0
Miss Dalí
as Anna Maria Dalí
2018
5.7
Voyageuse
as Erica
2018
7.3
Hochelaga, Land of Souls
as Sarah Walker
2017
5.1
🎬
Aberfan: The Green Hollow
2016
6.3
Under Milk Wood
as Mrs. Pugh
2014
6.0
🎬
A Picture of London
as Narrator
2012
0.0
Lovesong
as Maggie
2012
0.0
The Mountain That Had To Be Painted
as Narrator
2011
0.0
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
as Self
2007
0.0
The Murder Room
as Marie Strickland
2004
6.3
🎬
Still: Here/Now
as Self
2003
0.0
The Last Detective
as Vera Dulciman
2003
7.7
Stalin: Inside the Terror
as Narrator
2003
6.3
I, Claudius: A Television Epic
as Self
2002
7.0
Attila
as Grandmother
2001
6.3
Cinderella: The ITV Pantomime
as Evil Baroness
2000
6.5
🎬
Come and Go
as Ru
2000
4.0
The Magician's House
as Meg Lewis
1999
5.5
The Magician's House
as Meg Lewis / Lutra the Otter (voice)
1999
5.5
Aristocrats
as Narrator/Older Lady Emily Lennox
1999
6.0
Alice Through the Looking Glass
as Red Queen
1998
5.1
The Scold's Bridle
as Mathilda
1998
0.0
🎬
The Scold's Bridle
as Mathilda Gillespie
1998
6.2
🎬
Arthouse
as Self - Commentary
1997
0.0
Midsomer Murders
as Lady Annabel Butler
1997
7.5
La Femme Nikita
as Adrian
1997
7.4
Ivanhoe
as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine
1997
6.9
House of America
as Mam
1997
5.0
Silent Witness
as Beattie Elletson
1996
7.5
The Mousehole Cat
as Narrator
1995
10.0
The Vacillations of Poppy Carew
as Calypso
1995
5.0
🎬
The Return of the Borrowers
as Mrs. Driver
1993
6.5
The Age of Innocence
as Mrs. Archer
1993
7.0
Heidi
as Frau Sesemann
1993
7.1
🎬
The Sherman Plays
as Self - Introduction
1993
0.0
The Borrowers
as Mrs. Driver
1992
6.4
The Chestnut Soldier
as Nain Griffiths
1991
7.0
The Black Candle
as Daisy Barnett
1991
4.0
Emlyn's Moon
as Nain Griffiths
1990
7.0
🎬
Perfect Scoundrels
as Mother Aloysius
1990
6.0
🎬
Red Empire
as Narrator (voice)
1990
0.0
Dark River
as Mrs. Blessington
1990
0.0
Valmont
as Madame de Volanges
1989
6.7
Shadow of the Noose
as Lady Scott
1989
0.0
Agatha Christie's Poirot
as Mrs. Laura Upward
1989
8.2
David Macaulay: Pyramid
as Mersyankh (voice)
1989
0.0
The Snow Spider
as Nain Griffiths
1988
9.5
Vanity Fair
as Matilda Crawley
1987
0.0
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles
as Duchess of Windsor
1987
3.8
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
as Charal
1985
5.4
The Doctor and the Devils
as Annabella Rock
1985
6.2
Dune
as Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
1984
6.2
Smiley's People
as Lady Ann Smiley
1982
7.7
How Many Miles to Babylon?
as Mrs Alicia Moore
1982
0.0
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
as Clementine Churchill
1981
5.0
Clash of the Titans
as Cassiopeia
1981
6.9
Carpathian Eagle
as Mrs. Henska
1980
4.0
Hammer House of Horror
as Mrs. Henska
1980
7.1
Nijinsky
as Lady Ripon
1980
4.8
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
as Ann Smiley
1979
7.5
Crime and Punishment
as Katerina Ivanovna
1979
7.3
Tales of the Unexpected
as Hermione
1979
6.7
Warrior Queen
as Queen Boudicca
1978
5.0
Heartbreak House
as Hesione Hushabye
1977
0.0
The Achurch Letters
as Janet Achurch
1977
0.0
I, Claudius
as Livia
1976
7.8
How Green Was My Valley
as Beth Morgan
1975
6.5
Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill
as Mrs. Patrick Campbell
1974
8.0
Shoulder to Shoulder
as Emmeline Pankhurst
1974
5.0
Playhouse
as Janet Achurch
1974
7.0
Playhouse
as Alicia Moore
1974
7.0
Under Milk Wood
as Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard
1972
5.9
🎬
Platonov
as Anna
1971
0.0
Murphy's War
as Hayden
1971
6.1
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
as Ursula Mossbank
1969
6.6
Laughter in the Dark
as Lady Pamela More
1969
3.5
🎬
Thief
as Woman
1968
0.0
It’s Dearer After Midnight
as Jo
1968
0.0
Eh, Joe?
as Voice
1966
0.0
BBC Play of the Month
as Anna Voinitseva
1965
5.0
BBC Play of the Month
as The Duchesse of Berwich
1965
5.0
BBC Play of the Month
as Hesione Hushabye
1965
5.0
Young Cassidy
as Ella
1965
6.4
Becket
as Gwendolen
1964
7.1
🎬
Don Juan in Hell
as Dona Ana
1962
0.0
The Longest Day
as WRNS Officer (uncredited)
1962
7.6
🎬
Drama 61-67
as Carole Blair
1961
0.0
Tony Awards
as Self - Nominee
1956
5.9
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Lady Lavery
1951
8.6
🎬
Frank and Percy
N/A
0.0