Who played Prince Philip in film and TV? Before Netflix’s The Crown, Queen Elizabeth’s husband was portrayed by James Cromwell and Star Wars actor Christopher Lee

Apr 20 , 2021

Matt Smith as Prince Philip in The Crown. Photo: @whatonnetflix/Twitter

American actor James Cromwell played the Duke of Edinburgh opposite Oscar award-winning Helen Mirren in Hollywood film The Queen

Meanwhile the prince’s real-life friend Stewart Granger portrayed him in a romantic 1980s CBS film about Prince Charles and Princess Diana

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh – who died on April 9 at 99 – spent most of his life as a stalwart companion to his wife, who became Queen Elizabeth unexpectedly upon her father’s death in 1952. Through those many years, in addition to several documentaries where he appeared as himself, the prince was portrayed by a variety of actors in films and on television.

Britain’s Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, stands next to a cartoon of his wife Queen Elizabeth at the Cartoon Art Trust’s Kings and Queens exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London, of which he is a patron, in 2002. Photo: AFP

The most recent and high-profile depiction has been on Netflix’s hit series The Crown, where Philip was played at various ages by two different British actors, with a third upcoming in the series’ fifth and sixth seasons. An American was cast as Philip in The Queen, while one of his real-life friends took the reins in a 1982 TV movie for CBS.

He was even portrayed in another TV movie by the actor who menaced Middle-earth as Saruman in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

Curious about how Hollywood sees Prince Philip? Here are the actors who’ve taken on the role over the years – and one who will play him in the near future.

The Crown: Matt Smith, Tobias Menzies, Jonathan Pryce, Finn Elliot

Queen Elizabeth formally makes Philip a British prince in The Crown. Photo: Netflix

Despite being fiction, The Crown has done a lot in the past five years to make viewers feel like they know more than a bit about the inner workings of the British royal family. Prince Philip was played by Matt Smith in the series’ first two seasons, followed by Tobias Menzies in the third and fourth. Jonathan Pryce will take the reigns as Philip in the coming fifth and sixth seasons. Also, Finn Elliot played a young Philip in three episodes of the show, across seasons two and three.

“He’s torn between the duty to his wife and a duty to himself,” Smith told the LA Times about his Philip character. “And I found that conflict very interesting to explore and play because he’s pulled in two different directions constantly. No other man in that period would kneel before his wife or walk two feet behind her. That was very difficult for him.”

The Queen: James Cromwell