William Phipps(1922-2018)
- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
In the early days of 1950s science-fiction, one of the first people to
become identified with the genre was actor William Phipps. Aside from
furnishing the voice of Prince Charming in Disney's cartoon classic
Cinderella (1950), Phipps also hid his
boyish face beneath a beard as the star of
Arch Oboler's end-of-the-world melodrama
Five (1951); made a token appearance in
Oboler's The Twonky (1953);
encountered Martians in both
Invaders from Mars (1953) and
The War of the Worlds (1953);
and took on the Abominable Snowman as one of the leads in
The Snow Creature (1954). Most
notoriously, he even grappled with Moon maidens set on world conquest
in the almost indescribable
Cat-Women of the Moon (1953).
Phipps was born in Vincennes, Indiana, and grew up in St. Francisville,
Illinois; he knew from boyhood that he was destined to be an actor and
appeared in several plays in grade school and at Eastern Illinois
University. Hitchhiking to Hollywood in 1941, he worked on the stage
and later in films, beginning with RKO's
Crossfire (1947). Over the next 60
years he amassed a long list of film and TV credits; he also did
commercials and voiceover work, including the narration for the special
190-minute TV version of
David Lynch's
Dune (1984).
