A familiar face at Lily’s Café in Point Dume has passed away. But for some, William Phipps was more than just a familiar face, but a familiar voice as well. Phipps, who ate breakfast at Lily’s nearly every morning for 20-plus years, was usually seen wearing his World War II veteran’s hat. Unbeknownst to many, he had a long and illustrious Hollywood career. As a character actor in countless movies and television shows, Phipps will be forever remembered as the voice of Prince Charming in the beloved 1950 Disney classic animated film “Cinderella.”
Phipps, who lived on Point Dume for decades, died June 1 at UCLA/Santa Monica hospital. He was 96. The 30 people who showed up to his funeral June 7—including Lily’s Café owner Lily Castro—were asked to attend in cowboy attire in tribute to the scores of Westerns Phipps appeared in. As a surprise, when the service was over, Phipps had previously arranged for all attendees to have lunch at Lily’s that he had prepaid and arranged before his death.
Mostly known as a character actor, Phipps gave up a promising accounting career in Illinois in the early 1940s to pursue his Hollywood dream, but he quickly enlisted in the Navy after his brother was killed while serving in World War II. After his discharge, Phipps used the G.I. Bill to enroll in the Actors Lab. It was there he was noticed for his good looks and talent and was hired by Charles Laughton and Helene Weigel, the wife of playwright Bertol Brecht, to act in Brecht’s production of “Galileo.” By 1947, RKO signed Phipps as a contract player where he made his screen debut, film noir “Crossfire.”
It was a string of B Westerns where Phipps made his mark in the late 1940s, with movies such as “Desperadoes of Dodge City” and “The Arizona Ranger.” Then Walt Disney heard his voice in an audition and cast Phipps in his most memorable role as Prince Charming. Phipps at one time recalled recording the part in only two hours and being paid just $100 for the work. He did, however, make another $100 promoting the movie when the studio ran a contest to “meet Prince Charming.” He was outfitted in a white tie, tuxedo and top hat and met the lucky winner during a live radio broadcast at the Pantages Theater. A chauffeur drove the couple to Hollywood nightspots of the time on the Sunset Strip and then drove the winner back to the Roosevelt Hotel and Phipps back to his own Hollywood basement apartment he rented for a mere seven dollars a week.
In the 1950s, Hollywood churned out scores of sci-fi films and Phipps was cast in a slew of them, including “War of the Worlds” and “Invaders from Mars.” He had a prolific TV career as well, appearing in shows from as wide a range as “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prairie” to “Hill Street Blues,” “Santa Barbara” and “Murder, She Wrote,” among many others. Phipps even played Franklin Roosevelt in a television movie.
One of his last movies was “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey” where he played a character that helped rescue a dog. Phipps did care for a rescue dog, Goyo, and the two could often be seen walking daily in their Point Dume neighborhood.
Barbara Sottile had known Phipps, whom she called “Bill,” for two decades as regulars at Lily’s. She described him not only as a character actor, but as a character in person as well when she recalled first meeting him.
“I didn’t know many people here and saw him at his regular table reading the paper,” Sottile recalled. “I asked to borrow it to read the horoscope and he actually took out a quarter and flipped it at me and said, ‘Go buy your own.’
“Me, being from New York, I appreciated the rawness and rudeness of it and I started laughing and he started laughing and that began our friendship,” Sottile continued. The two then spent time together and Sottile often drove Phipps to doctor’s appointments. Sottile didn’t know about her friend’s Hollywood career until more than a year into their friendship. She described Phipps’ funeral, which included a color guard and flag ceremony since he was a veteran.
Besides Goyo, which will be cared for by a neighbor, Phipps left no surviving family. Friends say he left his estate to charitable organizations that help the needy.
