Fonds GB 0210 SIANPHIL - Siân Phillips Papers

Professionally known as Siân Phillips, the Welsh-speaking actress whose multi-media career now spans some seven decades was born Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Glamorgan in 1933. She studied at University College, Cardiff and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London., making her first appearance on a London stage in 1957 in Hermann Sudermann's Magda before going on to play the title rôle in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler that same year. Perhaps her best-known television rôle - that of Livia in the 1976 adaptation of Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius - won her a BAFTA TV Award. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2016 for her services to drama. Her tempestuous second marriage to actor Peter O'Toole produced two daughters, Kate (born 1960) and Patricia (born 1963). Following her divorce from O'Toole in 1979, she married actor Robin Sachs, whom she divorced in 1991. Siân Phillips has published two volumes of autobiography, Private Faces and Public Places, published in 1999 and 2001 respectively.

Stage and screen actor Peter O'Toole was born in Leeds in 1932 of Scottish and Irish parentage. Having appeared on stage since the 1950s, his first major screen debut was as the eponymous hero T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), a rôle which launched his subsequent illustrious film career. His tempestuous marriage to Siân Phillips lasted twenty years, from 1959 to 1979, and produced two daughters, Kate (born 1960) and Patricia (born 1963). Due to recurrent ill-health, O'Toole retired from acting in 2012.

The English stage, screen and voice-over actor Robin Sachs (1951-2013) was born in London, the son of actors Leonard Sachs and Eleanor Summerfield, and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). In the early 1990s Sachs took up an offer from various US television shows and relocated to Los Angeles, where he would remain based for the remainder of his life. He subsequently appeared in Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven (2001) and was also known for his rôle as the sorcerer Ethan Rayne in the US TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sachs was married to Siân Phillips from 1979 to 1991.

Actress, film attachè and reviewer Kate O'Toole was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, the daughter of Siân Phillips and Peter O'Toole. She was appointed to the then Bord Scannán na hÉireann (Irish Film Board) (now Fís Éireann (Screen Ireland)) in 2013, and serves as Chair of the Galway Film Fleadh.

Patricia (Pat) O'Toole, daughter of Peter O'Toole and Siân Phillips, is a personal, business and development coach at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance. She studied at the Arts Educational School at London's Barbican between 1984 and 1987 and made her London stage debut in 'The One Before The Last' at Offstage Downstairs fringe theatre in London's Chalk Farm.

Sally Phillips (née Thomas), mother of Sian Phillips, was born in Carmarthenshire in 1903 and worked as a schoolteacher prior to her marriage. Along with her husband David Phillips, father of Siân Phillips, she later took over the running of a further education centre in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Jessica Shayle O'Toole, actress, screenwriter, producer and director, is the daughter of Pat O'Toole and the granddaughter of Siân Phillips and Peter O'Toole.

Language note: Primary languages other than English are Welsh and French. There are also instances of Dutch, German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish and Yiddish. See under individual section headings.