| Name |
Sian Phillips |
| Height |
|
| Naionality |
Welsh |
| Date of Birth |
14-May-1933 |
| Place of Birth |
Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, UK |
| Famous for |
Acting |
Sian Phillips, CBE is a Welsh actress.
Phillips was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the daughter of Sally (née Thomas), a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman. She is a Welsh-speaker: in the first volume of her autobiography (Private Faces) she notes that she spoke only Welsh for much of her childhood, learning English by listening to the radio.
She attended Pontardawe Grammar School. Later she took up English and Philosophy at University College Cardiff. At RADA she won the Bancroft Gold Medal. She was originally known as and called Jane. But her Welsh teacher at school, Eric Davies, called her Sian (pronounced Shahn), the Welsh form of Jane.
Phillips graduated from the University of Wales in 1955. She entered RADA, with a scholarship, in September 1955, the same year as Dame Diana Rigg and Glenda Jackson. She went on to win the prestigious Bancroft Gold Medal for Hedda Gabler and was offered a Hollywood contract when she left. She was offered three film contracts, entailing her to work for an extended period of time in the United States, while she was still at RADA. But she declined, preferring to work on stage instead.
