A GIFTED PERFORMER DEVOTED TO LIFE
Whether performing Shakespeare, acting on television or delivering voice overs, at the heart of everything Phillip Hinton did was his devout adherence to the Bahá’í faith.
Phillip Hinton 1942 ꟷ 2021
A formidable presence on stage and behind the microphone, a genial, spiritual man in his private life, Phillip Hinton was a genuine creative force. He passed away in July not long after being diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma.
Phil’s rich English tones extolled the virtues of thousands of products across Australia’s television and radio airwaves. He ranked among the elite of voiceover artists from the 1970s to the 2000s, establishing a repertoire of character voices and accents that were a reliable go-to for the advertising industry.
Long before he became a voice artist, Phillip was an established stage actor. He was born in the United Kingdom, but his family emigrated to South Africa in 1947, where he began his stage career in the theatres of Cape Town and Johannesburg, after being invited to perform in radio drama, aged just 14.
In 1963, he returned to the UK, where he worked in repertory theatre and musical comedy before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966. His three years in the RSC began with parts in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and included tours to the USSR and Finland with Paul Scofield’s Macbeth, and to France with All’s Well That Ends Well.
There followed seasons at the Chichester Festival Theatre under Sir John Clements, a stint on the West End in the original London production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, and an assortment of plays at revered theatres such as the Bristol Old Vic and the Hampstead Theatre Club, where he starred in The Connection.
Phillip worked extensively in UK television, too, in BBC classics such as Softly, Softly, Z-Cars and Colditz, to name a few. His innate ability to jump from classic to modern performance was obvious as he appeared in the popular mini-series, The Brontës of Haworth, and then the action series, The Protectors, with Robert Vaughn.
In 1974, Phillip brought his family to live in Australia and began to regularly tread the boards here, beginning at the Sydney Opera House in 1975 with Of Mice and Men, then playing Iago in Othello for the Melbourne Theatre Company the following year. Between 1977 and 1979, he regularly appeared at Sydney’s Marian Street Theatre. His love for the plays of compatriot Athol Fugard was reflected in roles in the Australian premieres of A Lesson from Aloes, The Road to Mecca and Valley Song.
Phillip’s screen career included classic Australian films like Caddie and Manganinnie, and television series such as Home and Away and Blue Murder.
A performance that will live on in my memory is the wonderful Ballads of the Bush at Sydney’s City Recital Hall in 2009. Phillip’s love of poetry came to the fore as he recited famous works by some of Australia’s masters of verse. His genius was in the way his smiling eyes invited you in, carrying you across the stage and into the story itself. Listening to him evoke the spirit of C.J. Dennis’s Doreen was a joy.
Performances were a constant through the subsequent years, right up to a national tour in 2018 of Letters to Lindy by Alana Valentine.
At the heart of Phillip, was his greatest love — his deeply felt Bahá’í faith. A member of the world-wide community since 1961, he travelled throughout Britain, Ireland, Europe, Asia and Africa, giving talks and assisting with Bahá’í projects. His early-learned skills as a builder’s assistant saw him able to literally build communities, as well as hope, via his hands and practical nous.
At the Bahá’í World Congress in New York in 1992, Phillip played the role of disciple Howard McNutt in the historical play Heralds of the Covenant, performed before audiences of 15,000 in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. His play for one actor, Portals to Freedom — adapted from the book by Howard Colby Ives — was performed over many years in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, South Africa, Malaysia, China, the UK and Israel.
If you ever wished to observe a gifted actor balance great on-stage presence with behind-the-scenes humility, positivity and faithful devotion to life, you needed to look no further than Phillip Hinton. He is survived by Ann, his wife of 56 years, their three sons — Sean, Simon and Ben — seven adored grandchildren, much-loved in-laws and relatives.
Obituary by Gail Knight.
