Randy Phillips (January 22, 1926 — March 13, 2015) was an actor and singer. Phillips was the 34th Shepherd of The Lambs. He was a member of Actors Equity for sixty years and served on its Council and as a treasurer.
Phillips was elected to The Lambs in 1972. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s for television roles. He later re-joined the Club in 1995 when Dick Charles was shepherd.
He served as Shepherd of The Lambs from 2008–2013, succeeding Shepherd Bruce Brown. The Boy was Marc Baron, who became Shepherd when Phillips was too sick to continue in office.
His Broadway credits included H.M.S. Pinafore (1960), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Skyscraper (1965), and Mame (1966). Phillips worked in musical and dramatic stock, industrial shows, the national and Las Vegas companies of shows such as The Pajama Game.
Phillips appeared on TV on Hart to Hart, Wonder Woman, Charlie’s Angels, and The Edge of Night.
With Equity, Phillips was first elected to a two-year replacement term representing chorus after having served on both the Production Contract Committee and the 1964 Production Contract Negotiating Committee as a non-Council member. After being elected to his first five-year term in 1967, he became the chairman of the Agency, Industrial Shows, Investment, and Production Contract Committees and also served on the Advisory Committee on Chorus Affairs and the President’s Planning Committee, among many others. Phillips was also a trustee of the Equity-League Trust Fund and treasurer of the Actors Federal Credit Union. He served on the Equity Council until 1972 when he accepted an interim appointment as treasurer. He was elected to that post in 1973, serving until his retirement in 1980.
From The Lambs Script, by Peter Kingsley:
Randy Phillips was born a Manhattanite in 1926. In World War II he served in the U.S. Army — at one point guarding a group of German prisoners of war. Luckily for Rudolph, his first language was German. After his service years he attended the Juilliard School in Manhattan to study voice, and soon a career in show business was born under his new name, Randy Phillips.
From Pajama Game to Hello Dolly his career blossomed. Then he met actress Sheila Smith and love blossomed as well. “She” (as he always called her), and Randy would be together for very nearly half a century, until complications following a stroke would sadly take him from us earlier this year.
Shepherd Phillips served 15 years as a Club officer. During this time he brought in such notables as Peter Howard, Sean Malone, Rick McKay, Ted Chapin, and Peter Filichia to address Club members at Shepherd’s Luncheons. As Shepherd, Randy negotiated a more favorable lease for our 3 West 51st Street quarters.
I recall with great fondness the Christmas parties he presided over and the joy and sharing of those get-togethers with pocket calendars, pens, and refrigerator magnets supplied by Santa Randy. Music would be provided by Club members, as his talented Shelia merrily waved her baton. Those fond memories will live on for all of us.
Randy Phillips died March 13, 2015, at 89.