Harry Potter star Leslie Phillips’s widow – who is 30 years his junior – will be forced to leave their London home.

Phillips was best known for his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ catchphrases in the Doctor and Carry On films of the 1960s, but younger fans might recognise his voice from the Harry Potter films, in which he did the voiceover for the Sorting Hat.

The famous actor, who starred in 150 films, suffered a life-threatening stroke in 2015, and had been recovering at his home in Maida Vale, west London, before his death.

Details of the actor’s will – which the just-granted probate valuing his estate at £5.2million – have now been revealed, 21 months after his death at the age of 98 in November 2022. 

His will had been drawn up almost exactly four years prior to his death, stipulating that his £4.4million house is to be sold two years and nine months after his death, which will be next July.

The proceeds of the sale will be put into a trust divided between Phillips’s four children from his first marriage and his third wife, Zara Carr, whom he married in 2013 when he was 89 and she was in her mid-50s. 

Carr previously threatened legal action fearing she might have to move out of their marital home after her husband’s affairs were placed under administration by his solicitor under the terms of the Mental Capacity Act.

Leslie Phillips (right) married former air stewardess Zara (left) in 2013 when he was 89 and she in her mid-50s

Leslie Phillips and Barbara Roscoe share an embrace while on set in 1964

‘Don’t Just Lie There, Say Something!’ which starred Leslie Phillips, Joanna Lumley and Brian Rix in one of his notable roles

Leslie Phillips shows off his CBE, which was given to him by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in May 2008

Leslie Phillips played the voice of the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films franchise, seen here on the head of the boy wizard, played by Daniel Radcliffe 

Carr could not be reached for comment yesterday, but insisted last year that she would not leave without a fight.

‘This is my marital home,’ she said. ‘I want to live here for the rest of my life.’

The former air stewardess and social worker, who’d been previously widowed, first encountered Phillips on a zebra crossing close to his home.

A year after they married, he suffered a massive stroke. For the next eight years, she cared for him at the house, which is crowded with antique bronzes, glassware and sepia-coloured photographs.

But Phillips had two sons and two daughters by his first wife – Caroline, Claudia, Andrew and Roger -, to each of whom he left £50,000, and nearly three-quarters of the shares in the trust fund the will establishes, while his 15 grandchildren each receive £5,000. 

Carr is left £155,000, plus ten of her late husband’s belongings – each worth up to £1,500 – and more than a quarter of the shares in the trust fund. 

Phillips marriage to Carr came after he tragically lost his ex-wife Penny Bartley, who he stayed in touch with after their divorce, in a house fire in 1981.

And in 2011 he was rocked by the suicide of his second wife, the former Bond Girl Angela Scoular, until he found love again with Carr, who gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when he turned ‘black and blue’ during a seizure in 2015, which had followed his stroke.

By his own admission, Phillips was ‘lost’ following the tragic death of his second wife in 2011 and credits Carr with coming to his rescue and saving him from despair.

‘After Angela’s death I was lost to a certain degree,’ he says. ‘She was a very beautiful, talented actress, but she was ill for many years and suffered in so many ways – and it was really down to me to look after her.

‘When I took my marriage vows, for better for worse, for richer or poorer and in sickness or in health, I wasn’t just saying them. I meant them.

‘One minute I had a wife and the next I was completely alone. For a while I was really quite ill and very low, but Zara lifted me out of it and helped me get back to a normal life. I mean, look at me now. I couldn’t be happier.’

Leslie Phillips weds Penelope Bartley at All Souls Church in St John’s Wood, London, in 1948

His ex-wife Penny Bartley – who he stayed in touch with even after their divorce – was killed in a house fire in 1981. They are pictured here with their baby son Roger 

A family portrait taken in 1955 shows: Left to right, Andrew Phillips, one, Leslie Phillips, Claudia, four, wife Penelope Bartley and Caroline, six 

Phillips’ life had been touched by tragedy after the 2011 suicide of his second wife, the former Bond Girl Angela Scoular

Leslie Phillips, 74, with his then-wife actress Angela Scoular outside Buckingham Palace after receiving a CBE from the Queen in 2008

Zara (right) first encountered Phillips (left) at a zebra crossing close to his home

Leslie Phillips with His New Wife Zara Carr at Their Wedding Blessing at St Mark’s Church Maida Vale in 2013

Leslie Phillips at his beloved home in Maida Vale, London, taken on October 19, 2011, looking his debonair and suave self

Phillips admitted after his wedding to Carr that his four adult children from his first marriage – the oldest of whom is ten years older than his bride – did not exactly react with unreserved joy when told of this new relationship.

‘Of course, they were concerned for me, but I think it may have been partly financial. You can form your own opinion. My eldest child is 65 now and Zara is in her 50s, so you can work it out for yourself.

‘The thing is I want my own life still. As I get older I don’t want anyone to suddenly stop me running my own life.

‘My biggest fear is to spend the last years of my life in a residential home, so surely this is the luckiest of situations. My children all have their own lives and are terribly busy. Now they don’t have to worry about me because I have Zara.’

He added after his wedding to Carr in 2013: ‘It’s only complicated because I have a bob or two. If you are alone and have nothing, nobody gives a damn. If you are alone and have something, everyone cares.

‘But will Zara be provided for after my death? You betcha! I’ve made sure of that, but this was fought for and I had to be very strong.’

Veteran Carry On film stars Barbara Windsor and Leslie Phillips at a 40th Anniversary Gala reunion for the actors and makers of the franchise at Pinewood Studios in 1998

Leslie Phillips in 1975. He suffered a huge stroke in his later years but had battled to recover 

The actor looked suave and relaxed with his many female co-stars at a photocall for TV programme Casanova

Freddy Fox, played by Leslie Phillips, and Grunhilde, played by Heidi Erich, together in the Fast Lady film in 1962

Katie Price (then going by Jordan) and Leslie Phillips made an unusual duo in December 2003 when they teamed up at the Comedy Awards together

Paying tribute to her late husband, Carr, now in her 60s, said: ‘I’ve lost a wonderful husband and the public has lost a truly great showman. He was quite simply a national treasure. People loved him. He was mobbed everywhere he went.’

Tottenham-born film legend Phillips was still working before the stroke, voicing the Sorting Hat of the Harry Potter films and acting in several British TV dramas including the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Revolver and Agatha Christie’s Marple.

He was born on April 20, 1924, into a working-class family and made his first film appearances as a child in the 1930s.

Phillips became the family breadwinner after his father Frederick, a factory worker, died aged just 44 when Leslie was ten. 

Losing his natural Cockney accent through elocution lessons at stage school, Leslie’s acquired upper-crust voice and natural presence on stage and screen saved his family from squalor. 

Phillips joined the Carry On cast to be with his then-wife, Penny Bartley, and their four children, who were back in England.

His famous ‘I say, Ding Dong’ catchphrase of character Jack Bell in Carry On Nurse meant he would be forever immortalised in comedy.

In total, he appeared in four Carry On films, the early Carry On Nurse, Carry On Teacher and Carry On Constable.

Phillips, seen in In The Doghouse, said he loved being ‘idolised’ by the public who looked ‘beyond the lecherous twit I played’

Phillips, June Whitfield, Barbara Windsor and Jack Douglas celebrate the Carry on 40th Anniversary in 1998

Leslie Phillips poses for a photo with footballer Gary Mabbutt before the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Swansea City at Wembley Stadium on September 16, 2017, in what is one of the last pictures of the screen icon

Phillips was best known for his ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Well, Hello’ and ‘I Say’ catchphrases during a career in which he acted in 150 films

Barbara Roscoe and Leslie Phillips get close in 1964 film Father Came Too! 

Charles chats with Leslie Phillips at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s gala fundraising dinner for their ‘Complete Works Festival’, in London, on May 17, 2006

Veteran actor Leslie Phillips receives the Freedom of the City of London award at The Guildhall on November 16, 2010

He may have feared being typecast and told producer Peter Rogers he was not keen on returning to the franchise.

But in 1992 he starred in Carry On Columbus, thrilling fans of the original series of films.

He later revealed he loved being ‘idolised’ by the public, he wished people would ‘look beyond the lecherous twit I played’.

In one of his last interview with The Chap in 2020 he said his catchphrases had followed him his entire life with people constantly requesting he say them.

He said of the frequency: ‘Millions of times, and as for my other catch phrase, ‘Ding Dong!’, I couldn’t even count.

‘But I have had a marvellous career and I am very fortunate. One thing I have learnt is that I would have liked to spend more time with my children as they grew up.’He was made an OBE in 1998 and a CBE in 2008 for services to drama.