PHILLIPS: ACTOR PHILLIPS HEARD SCREAMS AS WIFE KILLED HERSELF

The wife of actor Leslie Phillips died after drinking drain cleaner and pouring it over her body, an inquest heard today (WEDS).

Former Bond girl Angela Phillips had stopped taking medication for her bipolar disorder while battling against alcoholism, cancer, debts and manic depression.

The 65-year-old was found on the steps of her Maida Vale home with horrendous 40 per cent burns on April 11 this year.

Her 87 year-old husband made desperate attempts to wash the corrosive fluid from her body as an air ambulance raced to the scene.

She was pronounced dead at 5.24pm the same day after doctors at St Mary’s Hospital tried in vain to treat her injuries.

Mrs Phillips, nee Scoular, had also suffered multiple fractures to her spine falling over on the stairs.

She had previously starred as Buttercup in Casino Royale in 1966 and as Ruby Bartlett in the Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969.

The actress also had parts in The Avengers and As Time Goes By.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said the actress had killed herself ‘while the balance of her mind was disturbed.’

The inquest heard that Angela had been a long-term alcoholic, drinking between 150 and 210 units of brandy and wine each week – and would even hide drink in the couple’s sink cupboard.

Mr Phillips, who was said to have been too ill to attend the hearing, said in a witness statement that magistrates seized her licence following a drink-driving conviction just six weeks before her death.

While on bail, she had crashed a car in Wales, the Carry On star said.

He added: ‘We were both successful and worked well together – we were happy.

‘Angela had been an alcoholic for as long as I had known her.

‘She did stop drinking from time to time, but would always return to drink.

‘She was, however, a very kind and generous person who would help me with my work – she was lovely when sober.’

Mrs Phillips was the actor’s second wife. They married in 1982, six years after they met while working on the same play.

Mrs Phillips had four children from a previous marriage.

Verdict: Suicide.

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Remembering the tragic events, Mr Phillips said he was sat in the couple’s living room waiting for a guest to arrive.

‘It would appear that Angela got up – unbeknown to me,’ he said.

‘I do recall hearing a noise at the front door, but I thought no more of it.

‘I heard someone scream, and looked out the windows and saw a man waving at me to look at the front door – I went and saw Angela at the front door, bleeding.’

He added that he did not believe she had been drinking that morning and had not told him she was planning to commit suicide.

‘Angela had told me two or three times that she felt suicidal in the past, and I managed to prevent this happening,’ he said.

‘Although she had said these things in the past, she hadn’t said anything specific in the weeks before she died.’

Paramedics arrived on scene at around 2pm and began frantic attempts to limit the damage, washing Angela with water and covering her with a blanket as they removed her clothes.

Dr Neil Slabbert, who flew in with an air ambulance, said he found her with burns ‘to her chest, abdomen, groin area, both arms, right thigh and middle of the back.’

‘The burns covered approximately 40 per cent of the total body area and there were severe burns to the inside of her mouth and throat,’ he said.

Police attending the scene recovered a white plastic bottle of high-strength ‘One Shot’ drain cleaner.

Dr Fiona Wilcox said: ‘It is my understanding that this substance contained very, very high concentrations of sulphuric acid – 91 per cent. 

Later, in casualty, Dr Nicola Batrick said medics reluctantly decided they could not save Angela’s life.

‘In view of her extensive injuries it was decided by consultants present that no further intervention would be appropriate and would not change the outcome of this patient.’

She added that the actress ‘deteriorated rapidly’ and died later that afternoon.

Following an autopsy, a pathologist concluded that the causes of death were ‘ingestion of corrosive substance’ and ‘multiple fractures’.

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In a statement Mrs Phillips GP said she had a ‘long history of alcohol dependence and depression’.

‘She made stoic attempts to cope with her condition and was capable of long periods of alcohol abstinence,’ said Dr Selwyn Dexter.

The inquest heard she was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2009 and treated with both chemo and radiotherapy before scans showed the disease had been beaten.

In late 2010, Dr Dexter said her depression and alcoholism ‘reasserted themselves’, while profligate spending suggested she was in the throes of mania.

During an appointment on February 25 this year she asked to be prescribed citalopram – an anti-depressant – while she was considered for admission to a psychiatric ward.

Medical records show that she had earlier attempted suicide at the age of 47 by taking a drug overdose and cutting her wrists.

Her psychiatrist Dr William Shanahan said Mrs Phillips failed to show up to an appointment last November and had stopped taking mood-stabilising drugs designed to control her manic depression.

He added: ‘She was inclined to self-medicate with alcohol.’

Ruling that Angela had killed herself while the balance of her mind was disturbed, Dr Wilcox said her ‘extensive injuries were incompatible with life.’

She added: ‘I’m satisfied that what Angela did, she did voluntarily and I am satisfied that when she did the act, she was conscious, to an extent, of what she was doing.

‘She would have understood the consequences of having drunk something such as sulphuric acid.

‘Mrs Phillips was very concerned about her health, and that the cancer was coming back.

‘She was also very distressed about financial problems, and she was concerned about the fines she had received in relation to her driving.

‘These would have undoubtedly played a part in her mind.

‘We also heard that a recurrent problem for Mrs Phillips was being consistent in taking medication, and her husband said she had stopped taking her mood stabiliser.

‘In consideration of all of the evidence in this case, I think this is the verdict that most accurately reflects the evidence: at the time she acted, the balance of her mind was disturbed.’

Addressing Angela’s son, Dan Scoular, Dr Wilcox said: ‘She was clearly an extraordinary woman – a very talented and successful actress who unfortunately battled the whole of her life with very debilitating health problems.’

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