Conrad Phillips, British television and film actor, Died at 90

  Actor

Conrad Phillips/Conrad Philip Havord was born on April 13, 1925, in London and died on January 13, 2016.

He was a British film and television actor.

In his teens, Conrad forged his birth date on his ration book so that he could join the Royal Navy at the age of 17.

Conrad then called himself ‘Bill’ during his three years of naval service because his shipmates kept taking the mickey out of the name, Conrad.

Conrad name wasn’t changed to ‘Phillips’ until he started acting.

Phillips father had been using the name ‘Conrad Phillips’ as a pen name for his thriller writing and suggested that his son use this as his stage name.

He was education at RADA and then appeared in repertory theatre and in the West End.

Phillips was best known for portraying William Tell in the popular ITV television series The Adventures of William Tell which ran for 39 episodes from 1958 to 1959.

Conrad Phillips also played Stefan, Tell’s mentor in the updated version Crossbow in 1987.

He worked in theatre, television and films – it was to be his busiest period as an actor, during the ’60s and the ’70s,

He suffered severe back pain, two replacement knees and a replacement hip, this brought a premature end to Conrad Phillips’ acting career and he retired from the screen in 1991.

Because of this, he spent the last episode of The Adventures of William Tell in a wheel chair, because he had broken his ankle whilst on location. Even the fighting shots were done in this way.

Conrad met his wife, Jennie, in April 1968.

Conrad Phillips released his autobiography, Aiming True, in 2013.

Conrad Phillips passed away at 90 yrs old.