Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips DBE (born 14 May 1933), known professionally as Siân Phillips, is a Welsh actress, author and singer. Phillips was the daughter of Sally (née Thomas), a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman. She is a Welsh-speaker and 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 and later read English and Philosophy at University College Cardiff, graduating in 1955. She entered RADA in LOndon, England with a scholarship in September 1955, the same year as Diana Rigg and Glenda Jackson. She went on to win the prestigious Bancroft Gold Medal for Hedda Gabler and was offered work in Hollywood when she left RADA. While still a student she was offered three film contracts, entailing her to work for an extended period of time in the United States; but she declined, preferring to work on stage instead.

Filmography

• 2026Frank and Percy
• 2024Apple Cider Vinegar — Voice
• Doctor Who — Enid Meadows
• Emperor: Rise & Fall of a Dynasty — Narrator
• The Chelsea Detective — Grandma Dix
• A Year in the Beacons — Narrator
• 2021Dream Horse — Maureen
• 2021National Theatre Live: Under Milk Wood — Mrs Utah Watkins / Polly Garter / Mrs Beyon
• 2020A Christmas Carol — Grandmother / narrator (voice)
• McDonald & Dodds — Agnes Gillian
• 2020Summerland — Margaret Corey
• 2019Be Happy! — Maria
• Good Omens — Mr. Henderson
• 2019National Theatre Live: Les Blancs — Madame Neilsen
• 2019Time & Again — Eleanor
• 2018Miss Dalí — Anna Maria Dalí
• 2018Nureyev — Narrator
• 2018To Provide All People — Patient
• 2018Voyageuse — Erica
• 2017Hochelaga, Land of Souls — Sarah Walker
• 2016Aberfan: The Green Hollow
• 2014Under Milk Wood — Mrs. Pugh
• 2012A Picture of London — Narrator
• 2012Lovesong — Maggie
• Playhouse Presents — May
• 2011The Mountain That Had To Be Painted — Narrator
• Lewis — Adele Goffe
• 2004The Murder Room — Marie Strickland
• 2003Stalin: Inside the Terror — Narrator
• The Last Detective — Vera Dulciman
• Attila — Grandmother
• 2000Cinderella: The ITV Pantomime — Evil Baroness
• 2000Come and Go — Ru
• 1999Aristocrats — Narrator/Older Lady Emily Lennox
• The Magician's House — Meg Lewis
• 1998Alice Through the Looking Glass — Red Queen
• 1998The Scold's Bridle — Mathilda Gillespie
• The Scold's Bridle — Mathilda
• 1997House of America — Mam
• Ivanhoe — Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine
• La Femme Nikita — Adrian
• Midsomer Murders — Lady Annabel Butler
• Silent Witness — Beattie Elletson
• 1995The Mousehole Cat — Narrator
• 1995The Vacillations of Poppy Carew — Calypso
• Heidi — Frau Sesemann
• 1993The Age of Innocence — Mrs. Archer
• The Return of the Borrowers — Mrs. Driver
• The Borrowers — Mrs. Driver
• 1991The Black Candle — Daisy Barnett
• 1991The Chestnut Soldier — Nain Griffiths
• Tonight at 8.30 — Clare Wedderburn, Barbara Faber, Olive Lloyd-Ransome
• 1990Dark River — Mrs. Blessington
• 1990Emlyn's Moon — Nain Griffiths
• Perfect Scoundrels — Mother Aloysius
• Red Empire — Narrator (voice)
• Agatha Christie's Poirot — Mrs. Laura Upward
• 1989David Macaulay: Pyramid — Mersyankh (voice)
• Shadow of the Noose — Lady Scott
• 1989Valmont — Madame de Volanges
• 1988The Snow Spider — Nain Griffiths
• The Snow Spider — Nain Griffiths
• A Killing on the Exchange — Isobel Makepeace
• The Two Mrs. Grenvilles — Duchess of Windsor
• Vanity Fair — Matilda Crawley
• 1985Ewoks: The Battle for Endor — Charal
• 1985The Doctor and the Devils — Annabella Rock
• 1984Dune — Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
• 1982How Many Miles to Babylon? — Mrs Alicia Moore
• 1981Clash of the Titans — Cassiopeia
• Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years — Clementine Churchill
• 1980Carpathian Eagle — Mrs. Henska
• Hammer House of Horror — Mrs. Henska
• 1980Nijinsky — Lady Ripon
• Crime and Punishment — Katerina Ivánovna
• Tales of the Unexpected — Hermione
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy — Ann Smiley
• Warrior Queen — Queen Boudicca
• 1977Heartbreak House — Hesione Hushabye
• 1977The Achurch Letters — Janet Achurch
• I, Claudius — Livia
• How Green Was My Valley — Beth Morgan
• 1974Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill — Mrs. Patrick Campbell
• Playhouse — Janet Achurch, Alicia Moore
• Shoulder to Shoulder — Emmeline Pankhurst
• 1972Under Milk Wood — Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard
• 1971Murphy's War — Hayden
• 1971Platonov — Anna
• 1969Goodbye, Mr. Chips — Ursula Mossbank
• ITV Saturday Night Theatre — Sally Stirling
• 1969Laughter in the Dark — Lady Pamela More
• W. Somerset Maugham — Martha Jones
• 1968It’s Dearer After Midnight — Jo
• The Sex Game — Louisa
• 1968Thief — Woman
• City '68 — Jo
• Half Hour Story — A Girl
• ITV Playhouse — May Bartram
• 1966Eh, Joe? — Voice
• BBC Play of the Month — Anna Voinitseva, The Duchesse of Berwich, Hesione Hushabye
• 1965Young Cassidy — Ella
• 1964Becket — Gwendolen
• Espionage — Anna
• 1962Don Juan in Hell — Dona Ana
• 1962The Longest Day — WRNS Officer (uncredited)
• Drama 61-67 — Carole Blair
• Armchair Theatre
• Hallmark Hall of Fame — Lady Lavery

Appearances as themselves (14)

• 2025Richard Burton: Wild Genius — Self
• 2024Alec Guinness: A Class Act — self
• 2023Siân Phillips at 90 — Self
• 2022Peter O'Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba — Self
• Remembers… — Self
• 2022Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends — Self
• Wonders of the Celtic Deep — Self - Narrator
• 2007The 50 Greatest Television Dramas — Self
• 2003Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film — Self - Ru (archive footage)
• 2003Still: Here/Now — Self
• 2002I, Claudius: A Television Epic — Self
• Arthouse — Self - Commentary
• The Sherman Plays — Self - Introduction
• Tony Awards — Self - Nominee