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:
“In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
“When he who adores thee has left but the name
Of his fault and his sorrows behind,
O! say wilt thou weep, when they darken the fame
Of a life that for thee was resign’d!”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)