Philip Madoc

Last updated 09 January 2020

Philip Madoc (1934-2012)
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Philip Madoc

Born: Thursday 5th July 1934
Died: Monday 5th March 2012 (age: 77)

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Philip Madoc is a Welsh actor who is best known in Doctor who for his role as Solon in the 1976 story The Brain of Morbius. He had three other roles appearing in fifteen episodes of the series.

Other roles include the title character in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, SS Officer Lutzig in the WW2 serial Manhunt (1969), and the vicious Huron warrior Magua in a serialisation of The Last of the Mohicans (1971). 

He reprised the character of Lutzig somewhat in a later episode of the comedy Dad's Army, "The Deadly Attachment", where he played a U-boat Captain held prisoner by the Walmington-on-Sea platoon of the Home Guard. 

Philip Madoc's ability to give life to German villains also surfaced in the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson TV series The Fortunes of War directed by James Cellan-Jones. He also appeared in an episode of Porridge ("Disturbing The Peace") by comparing his "large sexual appetite" with that of the frog. He also appeared in a controversial episode of The Goodies ("South Africa"), which satirised apartheid.

Film roles include Operation Crossbow (1965), The Quiller Memorandum (1966) and Operation Daybreak (1975).

In 1966 he appeared in the movie Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, a big screen remake of the 1965 story The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

He appeared twice in the drama series UFO, once as the partner of Ed Straker's estranged wife and once as the captain of a British warship under attack by the aliens.

He had a brief appearance as Commander Anton Gorski in the pilot episode of Space: 1999 (1975) who was replaced by Commander John Koenig for the remainder of the series.

Madoc also starred in the 1990s detective series A Mind to Kill as DCI Noel Bain. This series was made simultaneously in Welsh and English from 1994 - 2002.

Madoc's voice can be heard reading Bible quotations on a variant of the VoCo alarm clock and has also starred as Ellis Peters' medieval detective Brother Cadfael in the BBC Radio 4 Adaptations of Monk's Hood, The Virgin in the Ice and Dead Man's Ransom based on the novels by Ellis Peters.

In 2007 he appeared as "Y Llywydd" The President in S4C gangster series Y Pris, where he acts and speaks in his native Welsh.

Madoc is also a linguist who studied languages at the Universities of Wales and Vienna and has worked as an interpreter. He is patron to a St Albans based theatre school for children Best Theatre Arts.

Madoc also was the narrator for the Discovery Channel documentary series Egypt Uncovered.