Philips was born in New York. His acting career started on Broadway, and peaked with a starring role as
Michael Rossi in the film adaptation of
Peyton Place opposite
Lana Turner. He appeared in the
Paddy Chayefsky motion picture,
Middle of the Night (1959) as
Kim Novak's character's ex-husband, George. The following year, Philips was cast as the compassionate Lieutenant Wood in the episode, "The White Healer", on the
syndicated television anthology series,
Death Valley Days, hosted by
Stanley Andrews. Later in the 1960s, his career shifted towards directing, with credits ranging from the television series of
Peyton Place to
The Dick Van Dyke Show. He still did occasional acting, such as his appearance in 1963 in "Never Wave Goodbye", a two-part episode of
The Fugitive. He also guest starred on
The Outer Limits in the premiere episode, "
The Galaxy Being". Also in 1963, he played a lead role in "
Passage on the Lady Anne", an hour-long episode of
The Twilight Zone; he returned to the show the following year in the episode "
Queen of the Nile", where he played a reporter named Jordan "Jordy" Herrick. He was Juror Number 5 in the Studio One version of Twelve Angry Men. He appeared in
Flipper in 1964. He did a guest appearance on Season 4 Episode 7 of TV show Route 66. Philips made two guest appearances on
Perry Mason in (1965): as Kevin Lawrence in "The Case of the Golden Venom", and as Gordon Evans in "The Case of the Fatal Fortune". He played Harlan Fortune in S8 E26 "The Jarbo Pierce Story" on "Wagon Train", 1965. He also guest starred on the
Combat!: episode: "A Walk with an Eagle". In 1973 he directed
The Girl Most Likely to... starring
Stockard Channing. He directed
Dick Van Dyke on several episodes of
Diagnosis: Murder. He died in 1999 at the age of 72 from
progressive supranuclear palsy. ==Filmography==