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 containing the words early and/or life:
“It was common practice for me to take my children with me whenever I went shopping, out for a walk in a white neighborhood, or just felt like going about in a white world. The reason was simple enough: if a black man is alone or with other black men, he is a threat to whites. But if he is with children, then he is harmless, adorable.”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“Parents vary in their sense of what would be suitable repayment for creating, sustaining, and tolerating you all those years, and what circumstances would be drastic enough for presenting the voucher. Obviously there is no repayment that would be sufficient . . . but the effort to call in the debt of life is too outrageous to be treated as anything other than a joke.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)