Early Life
Madoc was born Phillip Jones near Merthyr Tydfil and attended Cyfarthfa Castle Grammar School where he was a member of the cricket and rugby teams and displayed talent as a linguist. He then studied languages at the University of Wales and the University of Vienna, speaking seven languages, including Russian and Swedish and had a working knowledge of Huron Indian, Hindi and Mandarin. He worked as an interpreter, becoming very disenchanted with having to translate for politicians: "I did dry-as-dust jobs like political interpreting. You get to despise politicians when you have to translate the rubbish they spout", before switching to drama and winning a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Read more about this topic: Philip Madoc
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)