Actor Conrad Phillips Tells it as it was

Conrad Phillips is best known for playing William Tell Book cover Aiming True

More than 50 years ago Conrad Phillips was bounding over the Welsh hills playing Swiss national hero William Tell in an immensely popular British television serial; now 88, he has just published his autobiography.

William Tell is probably the role he’s best remembered for – as the title of his book implies – but he has done plenty of other things, from Shakespeare and James Joyce, to B movies and commercials.

He’s had a lot of fun, as he told swissinfo.ch. But life hasn’t always been easy: his book Aiming True also relates his tough childhood, and the gradual deterioration of his first marriage. And he’s taken his share of spills. For the final episode of William Tell he was actually in a wheelchair, having cracked his ankle in an awkward fall. With a stunt double for long shots, clever camera angles and “film trickery” the episode was shot successfully and “only the trained eye would have spotted the subterfuge,” he writes.

While waiting for Tell to get the go-ahead, he was offered a job filming in Africa. He chickened out of a stunt involving a cheetah hurling itself at him. Just as well: the last-minute double got his back ripped, and the four handlers were badly mauled.

swissinfo.ch: Why did you decide to write your autobiography?

Conrad Phillips: Because an agent asked me to. And having done it, I rather enjoyed it.

I’ve had quite a bouncy life. Some of the childhood stuff was kind of heavy, but I made a joke of it all. It was very usefully cathartic.

swissinfo.ch: How do you look back at William Tell?

C.P.: With enormous fondness. At that time, not so long after the war, there was still a feeling of comradeship, and there weren’t so many actors about and television hadn’t come in, and suddenly we were making films. We did a new episode every week, there were reunions with actors you had known, and you were a member of the established group. It was great fun.

We never had any problems at all with egos or conflicts of any sort. It was very professional. We enjoyed it, and the theory is that if you enjoy it, the audience enjoys it.

swissinfo.ch: Do you think that’s why it was so popular?

C.P.: I think there was the association with the war-time resistance that still lingered on. It was an easy concept for people to understand: the occupation by Austria in the case of William Tell, and the occupation of most of Europe by the Nazis.

So the themes were there – plus there was all this swashbuckling and some sensitive stories.

Conrad Phillips

Born in London in 1925, he was brought up largely by his mother as his father was usually absent.

He joined the Navy in 1942, lying about his age.

After the war he studied at RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art).

He is best known for playing the title role in the British television series ‘The Adventures of William Tell’, which ran for 39 episodes in 1958-9.

However, he also appeared in the theatre, films and other television plays.

Ill health – in particular various injuries suffered during the course of his career – obliged him to give up acting in 1991.

His first marriage, from which he has a son, ended in divorce; he met his second wife, Jennie, in 1968 during a shoot for a commercial.

After retirement, he and his wife bought and ran a Scottish hill farm, Skeoch, about which Jennie has written a book.

They subsequently moved to France and spent 20 years restoring an old barn.

The couple now live in Chippenham, in southern England.

Having published his autobiography, Phillips is currently working on a novel.

swissinfo.ch: Did it cast a blight on your career? You were afraid of being typecast…

C.P.: It opened a lot of doors, and shut a lot of others. It’s a very difficult thing to be associated with a famous character like that, because you aren’t trusted to do any serious work – although I did a lot of serious work in the theatre before William Tell and afterwards too. I did three productions of James Joyce’s only play, Exiles, and I did a lot of Shakespeare, but it wasn’t well known that I did this. I was more labelled with William Tell and swashbuckling than anything else.

swissinfo.ch: Do you regret that?

C.P.: It’s the way the dice tumbles in life, and I go with life. I don’t have any great regrets – that’s a waste of time.

swissinfo.ch: swissinfo invited you to visit about ten years ago as part of a series of reports it ran marking the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Schiller’s William Tell. That was actually the first time you’d ever been to Switzerland?

C.P.: That’s absolutely true. When I asked if we were going to Switzerland to shoot the exteriors they said it was far too expensive. So we went to North Wales, and later to the Spanish Pyrenees, which was quite a jaunt – particularly because we went in mid-August and it was so hot and we were dressed for Switzerland in the winter.

swissinfo.ch: When you came to Switzerland, was it what you expected?

C.P.: It was absolutely magnificent. And everyone was very friendly and kind to us. Not many people had heard of the series, although I think swissinfo had told the people we dealt with on the way that I’d been William Tell. We went to Bürglen [Tell’s alleged home village] and other places where Tell is supposed to have been.

swissinfo.ch: Does it worry you that William Tell is a legend rather than a real person?

C.P.: No, he’s another character. A character that’s immortal, because it’s a theme of human existence: the fight against oppression and injustice. And if he had been a human being who lived 700 years ago, it would still have all been speculation, I think. I accepted the character as written and played him for all he was worth.

Aiming True

Phillips’ autobiography is published by Any Subject Books

It is available in e-format.