From Hollywood to the West End, acclaimed Welsh actress Dame Siân Phillips has done it all – and shows no signs of stopping. A new documentary, Siân Phillips at 90, offers an intimate, personal account of Siân’s life and career.
Born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, at the foot of the Black Mountains, Siân has had a glittering career spanning nine decades. As a young child, she started performing in local Eisteddfods, which she found highly educational. After catching the attention of BBC producers, she worked through her teens as an announcer and in radio plays, as well as touring with the Welsh Arts Council, before eventually moving to London to join RADA.
Siân speaks candidly about her tumultuous, sometimes destructive, marriage to screen star Peter O’Toole. Considered the great, glamourous, couple of their time, all was not as it seemed at home. Siân describes how O’Toole tried to stop her from forging ahead with her career, and how she would work under the radar at times.
Siân recalls, “I missed what I call the Golden Years, which are the years from 29 until 45. Those are the years when you really lay down the foundation of your career.”
At the turn of the 70s, television became prominent, and Siân was well placed to take advantage of this golden age of drama. She would shine in such dramas as ‘Shoulder To Shoulder,’ ‘How Green Was My Valley’ and a daring new series, which would cement her place in TV history, ‘I, Claudius.’
Siân says of her TV work, “Real movie stars were very snooty. No-one would dream of being in a television play. But I always knew that television was very important and that it was going to become more and more important.”
At 90 years old, Dame Siân Phillips is still active, with an energy and enthusiasm for work that belies her age, maintaining three diaries to keep her schedule, and regularly doing pilates to stay fit.
Featuring interviews with Siân’s daughter Pat O’Toole, plus friends and co-stars including Sir Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius), Dame Eileen Atkins, Nigel Havers, the Siân Phillips Award recipient Rakie Ayola and Matthew Rhys, who starred alongside Siân Phillips in his first role (House of America).
Publicity contact: LD3