Lee Philips
American actor
title: "Lee Philips" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1927-births", "1999-deaths", "american-male-film-actors", "american-male-television-actors", "american-male-stage-actors", "deaths-from-progressive-supranuclear-palsy", "film-directors-from-new-york-city", "american-television-directors", "20th-century-american-male-actors", "male-actors-from-new-york-city"] description: "American actor" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Philips" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American actor ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Lee Philips |
| image size | 200px |
| caption | Lee Philips as Ellery Queen in 1959 |
| birth_name | Leon Friedman |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | New York City, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| occupation | Actor/Director |
| :: |
| name = Lee Philips | image = | image size = 200px | caption = Lee Philips as Ellery Queen in 1959 | birth_name = Leon Friedman | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Actor/Director |spouse =
Lee Philips (born Leon Friedman; January 10, 1927 – March 3, 1999) was an American actor, film director, and television director.
Life and career
Philips was born in New York. His acting career started on Broadway, and peaked with a starring role as Michael Rossi in the film adaptation of Peyton Place opposite Lana Turner. He appeared in the Paddy Chayefsky motion picture, Middle of the Night (1959) as Kim Novak's character's ex-husband, George. The following year, Philips was cast as the compassionate Lieutenant Wood in the episode, "The White Healer", on the syndicated television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews.
Later in the 1960s, his career shifted towards directing, with credits ranging from the television series of Peyton Place to The Dick Van Dyke Show. He still did occasional acting, such as his appearance in 1963 in "Never Wave Goodbye", a two-part episode of The Fugitive. He also guest starred on The Outer Limits in the premiere episode, "The Galaxy Being". Also in 1963, he played a lead role in "Passage on the Lady Anne", an hour-long episode of The Twilight Zone; he returned to the show the following year in the episode "Queen of the Nile", where he played a reporter named Jordan "Jordy" Herrick. He was Juror Number 5 in the Studio One version of Twelve Angry Men. He appeared in Flipper in 1964. He did a guest appearance on Season 4 Episode 7 of TV show Route 66.
Philips made two guest appearances on Perry Mason in (1965): as Kevin Lawrence in "The Case of the Golden Venom", and as Gordon Evans in "The Case of the Fatal Fortune". He played Harlan Fortune in S8 E26 "The Jarbo Pierce Story" on "Wagon Train", 1965. He also guest starred on the Combat!: episode: "A Walk with an Eagle". In 1973 he directed The Girl Most Likely to... starring Stockard Channing. He directed Dick Van Dyke on several episodes of Diagnosis: Murder. He died in 1999 at the age of 72 from progressive supranuclear palsy.
Filmography
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Studio One | Juror No. 5 | "Twelve Angry Men" |
| 1956 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Georgie Minnelli | Season 2 Episode 7: "Alibi Me" |
| 1957 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Jack Staley | Season 3 Episode 11: "The Deadly" |
| 1957 | Peyton Place | Michael Rossi | |
| 1958 | The Hunters | First Lieutenant Carl Abbott | |
| 1959 | The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen | Ellery Queen | 13 episodes |
| 1959 | Middle of the Night | George Preisser | |
| 1960 | Tess of the Storm Country | Eric Thorson | |
| 1961 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Ben Conan / Fred Sheldon | Season 6 Episode 27: "Deathmate" |
| 1962 | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | Frank Carlin | Season 1 Episode 9: "The Black Curtain" |
| 1963 | The Twilight Zone | Alan Ransome | Season 4 Episode 17: "Passage on the Lady Anne" |
| 1963 | The Twilight Zone | Jordan Herrick | Season 5 Episode 23: "Queen_of_the_Nile_(The_Twilight_Zone)" |
| 1963 | Violent Midnight | Elliot Freeman | |
| 1965 | The Lollipop Cover | Nestor | |
| :: |
References
References
- Eissner, Bonnie. (Fall 2011). "A Look Back: From War to Peace to Stage & Screen".
- (August 2025)
- [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19580122&id=fd5YAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gPcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5894,5083119&hl=en "Stellar Team / Lee Philips, as a high school principal, and Lana Turner, shown here in a scene from ''Peyton Place'', form one of the more mature romantic couples in the picture" (''Spokane Daily Chronicle'', January 23, 1958, page 14)]
- (August 2025)
- [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19741206&id=mh5UAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8owDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3429,5118545&hl=en Witbeck, Chrles {sic}. "''Red Badge of Courage'' / They Finally Got It Right" (''Boca Raton News'', December 6, 1974, page 8)]
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