Biography for
Prince Philip More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

10 June 1921, Villa of Mon Repos, Corfu, Greece

Birth Name

Philippos Andreou of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderberg-Glücksburg Prince of Greece and Denmark

Height

6' 2" (1.88 m)

Mini Biography

Prince Phillip was born on 10 June 1921 as a Prince of Greece and Denmark. His family was deposed and he lived in France and finally went to boarding school in Gordonstoun in Scotland. Eventually he sent his boys there. When he was 18 he met 13 year old Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth, his third cousin from their descent from Queen Victoria, his second cousin once removed from their descent from King Christian IX of Denmark and fourth cousin once removed from their descent from King George III. They fell in love, but her father King George VI did not want them to get married right away. Before they became engaged he renounced his hereditary royal title and adopted the surname his uncle Louis Mountbatten. They were engaged in 1947 and married on November 20th of that year. Before they married he was created His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, but was not given the title of Prince until 1957. Almost a year after their wedding they had their first child, a boy, Charles Phillip Arthur George. In 1950 they had a daughter, Anne. They were followed by Andrew and Edward. After the death of his father in law in 1952 his wife became Queen Elizabeth II and he had to give up the Navy to help her being that he was now a royal consort. He has been active with services and takes on a lot of public engagements for his wife. In the late 1970s he became a grandfather when his daughter Anne had two children, a boy and a girl named Zara. His eldest son Charles had a son William in 1982 and second son Henry in 1984. His second son Andrew had a daughter Beatrice in 1989 and second daughter Eugenie in 1991. His third son Edward was created the Earl Wessex just before his marriage to Sophie Rhys-Jones; they have one daughter, Lady Louise Windsor.

IMDb Mini Biography By: anonymous

Spouse

Queen Elizabeth II

(20 November 1947 - present) 4 children

Trivia

In June 1968, his wife appointed him to the Order of Merit.

In April 1952, his wife made him a Knight of the Thistle.

Prince Philip gained his RAF wings in 1953, his helicopter wings in 1956 and his private pilot's licence in 1959.

Was the first President of World Wildlife Fund - UK (WWF) from its formation in 1961 to 1982.

Is the Duke of Edinburgh, the Earl of Merioneth and the Baron Greenwich.

Admiral of the Fleet, Field Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air Force since 1953.

Appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1947, a Knight of the Thistle in 1952, a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1953 and a Member of the Order of Merit in 1968.

Created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich on 19 November 1947.

Father of Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Edward Wessex

Grandfather of Peter Phillips, Zara Phillips, Prince William Windsor, Prince Harry Windsor, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Lady Louise Windsor and James Mountbatten-Windsor (Viscount Severn).

Son-in-law of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Brother-in-law of Princess Margaret.

Was appointed a Knight of the Garter by his father-in-law, King George VI.

Grandson of George I (1845-1913), King of the Hellenes, and Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinova (1851-1926). George was the brother of Alexandra of Denmark, consort of King Edward VII. Olga was the niece of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Philip was 5th in line to the Greek throne when his family had to flee into exile in 1922 after the Monarchy was overthrown by a military junta.

Famous - or infamous - for his public gaffes: When visiting China in 1986, he told a group of British students "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty- eyed;" he once asked a Scottish driving instructor "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough for them to pass the test?"; he suggested the locals were cannibals on a visit to Papua New Guinea by asking a British student "You managed not to get eaten then?"; after accepting a gift from a Kenyan native, he said "You are a woman, aren't you?"

Born on the dining-room table of his parents' house, Mon Repos.

Among the other conditions Philip had to accept to in order to marry Elizabeth was that their children would not bear his name. By Letters Patent in 1960, Elizabeth gave her descendants surname Mountbatten-Windsor, except for those with the title "HRH" - which is a title used by all of her children and male-line grandchildren.

The Greek Royal Family have no surname. When he gave up his title of Prince of Greece in 1947 he had to choose what to call himself. His Uncle Louis Mountbatten suggested Mountbatten, which is the anglicised version of his mother's name before marriage.

Became the husband of a Princess in 1947, and so of a Queen in 1952, but did not become a Prince of the United Kingdom until 1957.

Became a naturalised British subject in 1947.

As a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria, he is positioned at 496th in the line of succession to the British Throne.

Played by American actor James Cromwell in The Queen (2006).

Briefly hospitalised with a chest infection in April 2008.

He was awarded the AC (Companion of the Order of Australia) in the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Personal Quotes

"Do you still throw spears?" -- to an Australian aborigine (2002)

"British women can't cook." (1966)

"If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." -- at the 1986 World Wildlife Fund conference

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