His talent for portraying shameless womanisers with lust-filled catchphrases – “Well, hello!” … “I say!” … “Ding dong!” – made him a household name in the “Doctor” and “Carry On” films of the 1960s.
It also ensured that the poverty that had marred his childhood was far behind him as he turned his attention in later years to the weightier roles he loved so much.
Yet nothing Leslie Phillips did on stage or screen could match the drama and pathos of the final act of his life – details of which I can now reveal, 21 months after his death at the age of 98 in 2022.
His will had been drawn up almost exactly four years earlier. But in a brutal twist of fate, Phillips, who had always said he feared not death but “only sickness and senility”, was no longer in control of his own affairs. Instead, these were managed by his lawyer under the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act.
His third and final wife – Zara, a former flight attendant who married Phillips in 2013 when he was 89 and she was in her mid-50s – was aware of this and threatened legal action, convinced that she would then have to leave the four-storey, £4 million townhouse she and Phillips lived in in Maida Vale, west London.
Leslie Phillips (right) married former flight attendant Zara (left) in 2013, when he was 89 and she was in her mid-50s
Zara (right) first met Phillips (left) at a zebra crossing near his house
As it turns out, she was right. Probate proceedings have just begun. Phillips’ estate is valued at £5.2 million. The terms of the will stipulate that the house should be sold two years and nine months after his death – by July next year – and the proceeds should be put into a trust fund.
Zara, who was already widowed, first met Phillips, the voice of the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films, on a zebra crossing near his house.
A year after their wedding, he suffered a massive stroke. For the next eight years, she cared for him in the house, which is filled with antique bronzes, glassware and sepia-toned photographs.
Zara was unavailable for comment yesterday, but insisted last year that she would not go down without a fight.
“This is my marital home,” she said. “I want to live here for the rest of my life.”
But with his first wife, Phillips had two sons and two daughters, to whom he left £50,000 each and almost three-quarters of the shares in the trust fund set up in his will, while his 15 grandchildren each received £5,000.
But Zara is far from forgotten. She is left with £155,000, ten of her late husband’s possessions – each worth up to £1,500 – and more than a quarter of the shares in the trust fund.
Ding dong!
Hats off to Clint’s tips for actor Sam
His roles range from Jurassic Park and The Piano to the Brummie gangster drama Peaky Blinders – but Sam Neill regrets that he has never appeared in a cowboy film.
He says: “I met Clint Eastwood once at an awards ceremony or something and said to him: ‘I would have loved to be in a western, preferably with you, Clint.'”
“He said, ‘What do you mean, Sam? You wear a hat and squint a little bit.'”
“I thought, ‘Oh, this is great. This is all you need… all you have to do is put on a hat and blink a little bit.'”
Taylor: I had some Swift photos during lockdown!
When Taylor Swift gave her last concert at Wembley Stadium, she told her fans what a key role London had played in her career.
Swift, 34, spent the Covid lockdowns in Primrose Hill with her then-boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, while writing her 2020 album Folklore.
Taylor Swift gave her last concert at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday evening
“In my fantasy world of folklore, I was like a classic Victorian lady, wandering through the woods in a lace nightgown, holding a candlestick and collecting feathers,” she said.
“The truth was that I was a lonely millennial woman who hung out in a house full of cat hair and drank a lot of white wine.”
Von Tresckow finishes a heartfelt project
Fashion designer Beatrice von Tresckow, whose outfits were worn by the King’s niece, Zara Tindall, has just completed a love project.
She and her team spent an incredible 1,800 hours making her daughter Frederike Gardiner’s wedding dress for her wedding to businessman Caldon Pike this weekend in Cheltenham.
“I put my heart and soul into this dress,” Beatrice tells me.
I can’t wait to see it.
Malmstrom’s “Browning 9mm”
His credentials as a former member of the SAS have, as I revealed on Saturday, been the subject of heavy fire.
But 57-year-old businessman Peter Malmström has always done things in a certain style.
“He had a Browning 9mm (semi-automatic pistol) behind his desk,” a visitor to his office in the 1990s tells me. “And there was a full metal jacket bullet in a glass frame. On it was a little brass plaque: ‘In case of emergency, break glass.'”
Malmstrom says the weapon was actually a decommissioned CZ-75 and he had “some blanks” on display.
Perhaps they helped to fend off his then mother-in-law Mandy Rice-Davies, a showgirl in the Profumo affair?
Claudia and Matthew generate sales of £246 million
“Kingsman” filmmaker Matthew Vaughn has had a successful year at Marv Studios, which he owns with his wife Claudia Schiffer.
Recently filed accounts show that the production company generated a huge turnover of £246.4 million and made a profit of £77.4 million last year.
Claudia Schiffer (left) and Kingsman filmmaker Matthew Vaughn (right) own Marv Studios, which had a huge turnover of £264.4 million last year
Vaughn’s earnings come despite disappointing reviews for his latest film, Argylle. According to financial statements, Marv’s activities include “film production services, film and television distribution, and brand licensing and management of the Kingsman and Claudia Schiffer brands.”
Vaughn and Schiffer refused to pay dividends.
Marv not only produced the Kingsman series, but also numerous hits such as Rocketman, Kick-Ass, Snatch and Layer Cake.
