Philip Bond (actor)

Life and career

Bond was born in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of Matthew William Bond (1899-1951) and Blodwen (née John; 1900-1981); he had an older brother, Ifor John Bond (1929-1992), and a twin sister, Shirley. Bond's first acting experience was at Burton Boys' Grammar School, where he was a pupil, and in addition attended classes at the School of Speech and Drama in Burton. In 1952 he joined the Central School of Speech and Drama (then based in rooms in the Royal Albert Hall), where contemporaries included Delena Kidd, Heather Sears and Ian Hendry. In 1957, he played Sir John Marraby in the musical Zuleika, based on the novel Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm.

His first television role was in the series ITV Television Playhouse (1958–61). He later appeared in, among others, The Saint (1963), Doctor Who (1964), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1968), The Avengers (1969), Z-Cars (1969–75), Only Fools and Horses (1985), Casualty (2007), and Midsomer Murders (2007).

Bond's film roles include Count Five and Die (1957), Orders to Kill (1958), Foxhole in Cairo (1960), I Want What I Want (1972), and Fever Pitch (1997). He was interviewed in the 2008 documentary The Cult of The Onedin Line.

He married the television producer Pat Sandys (1926–2000) in 1959. The marriage was later dissolved. With Sandys he is the father of actresses Abigail and Samantha Bond, and the film and TV journalist Matthew Bond. He lived in the South Wales village of Abergwynfi.

He died at the age of 82 on 17 January 2017, while on holiday in Madeira.