Kimber "Tubby" Phillips

(b. Bloemfontein, **/**/1884 – d. London, 26/04/1930). Actor. Born Harry Kemble, Kimber “Tubby” Phillips moved to England where he became a popular film actor. Weighing in at 26 stone (364 pounds), he claimed to be the largest stage and screen comedian in the world and surviving photographs would seem to substantiate that claim. On the stage he acted in The Government Inspector (Gaiety Theatre/1926) with Claude Rains, but he became especially well known through his film appearances in a number of shorts for directors Walter Forde and Monty Banks. He also featured in Anthony Asquith’s first feature film (directed with A.V. Bramble), entitled Shooting Stars (1928), while Under the Greenwood Tree (Harry Lachman/1929) was apparently the first all-talking motion picture made in England. He also claimed to have acted in the first film produced by African Film Productions, which would have been A Story of the Rand (Lorimer Johnston/1916). Unfortunately we have not been able to find any evidence of that. In addition he appeared as a sparring partner of boxer Ted “Kid” Lewis and others in music halls. He was killed when a car in which he was a passenger collided with a milk lorry at the junction of Tottenham Court and Euston Road in the early hours of 26 April 1930. (FO)

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