Philip James Voss (20 August 1936 – 13 November 2020) was a British stage, radio, film and television actor.
Early life
Voss was born to pharmacist James Voss and his wife, Viola (née Walmsley) in Leicester. He had a younger brother, John. When he and his family moved to the village of Wollaton, near Nottingham, he attended Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School. He joined a local amateur theatre and, after national service with the RAF, trained for the stage at RADA.
Career
Voss played roles in the Doctor Who serials Marco Polo and The Dominators, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, the 1981 Lord of the Rings radio series, Indian Summer, an RSC 1996 revival of The White Devil, The Brides in the Bath, two plays in the Arkangel Shakespeare and a small role in an audio dramatisation of an Anton Chekhov short story. He also played recurring roles in the TV series Fish as Ivan Vishnevski and Vicious as Ian McKellen's cynical brother Mason Thornhill.
Other credits include a stint at the London Shakespeare Workout, two roles for the Shared Experience Company (in Three Sisters and The Seagull), and playing Serebryakov in a West End rendition of Anton Chekhov's The Wood Daemon. At the RSC during the 1990s, he played Menenius in Coriolanus, Sir Epicure Mammon in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, Ulysses in Troilus and Cressida, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, and Prospero in The Tempest.
Personal life and death
From the 1970s onwards, Voss lived in Bushey, Hertfordshire, with his partner, writer John Peacock. They entered into a civil partnership in 2006, and remained together until Peacock’s death in 2017. Voss died from cancer and complications of COVID-19 in Watford, Hertfordshire, on 13 November 2020, aged 84.
Theatre
Ivanov as Shabelsky, Director Trevor Nunn, National Theatre
Love's Labour Lost as Boyet, Director Trevor Nunn, National Theatre
As You Like It as Jaques, Director Peter Hall, Theatre Royal Bath/USA
The Royal Hunt of the Sun as Miguel Estete, National Theatre
Uncle Vanya as Alexandr Vladmiirovich Serebryakov, Director Hugh Fraser, Wilton's Music Hall
The Giant as Lodovico/Soderini, Director Gregory Doran, Hampstead Theatre
The Circle as Lord Porteous, Director Joanthan Church, Chichester Festival Theatre
Apologia as Hugh, Director Josie Rourke, Bush Theatre
Canary (2010) as Older Tom, Director Hettie MacDonald, Liverpool Everyman
Radio
Aspects of Love as Sir George, BBC Radio
The Lord of the Rings as the Lord of the Nazgûl, BBC Radio
Tulips in Winter as Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel, BBC Radio