Peg Phillips, 1918-2002:
'Northern Exposure' actress, Woodinville theater founder

Local News: Tuesday, November 12, 2002
By Sherry Grindeland
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Peg Phillips, late-blooming character actress and feisty founder of the Woodinville Repertory Theatre, died Thursday morning from lung disease. She was 84.

Best remembered for her role as storekeeper Ruth Ann in the popular, quirky television series "Northern Exposure," Ms. Phillips appeared in at least eight movies and a number of television commercials. She also had guest roles on shows such as "Seventh Heaven," "Touched By An Angel" and "E.R."

Ms. Phillips began acting when she retired as a tax accountant and enrolled in the University of Washington drama school at the age of 66. She began getting jobs almost immediately.

She made her last stage appearance in the Woodinville group's 1999 production of "Bell, Book and Candle" under the direction of Hal Ryder, local director and Cornish College of the Arts teacher.

"Peg had a great belief in human beings and human kindness," Ryder said. "She accepted people for who they were. She was direct and down to earth but was also highly cultured."

About a month before Ms. Phillips died, Ryder spent three hours at her bedside discussing life and death, people, the world, theater and art. After she ate dinner, she handed Ryder her dentures and asked him to clean them.

"That was Peg; she was unpretentious," Ryder said.

Ms. Phillips' name frequently appeared on favorite local-celebrity polls conducted by newspapers and television stations. She was always quotable and groused about Woodinville's growth with the oft-repeated grumble that, "It's having a grand mall seizure."

Radio personality Dave Wingert of Seattle, who appeared in several Woodinville plays, described Ms. Phillips as a modern-day pioneer woman whose can-do attitude inspired everyone she met.

"She was irascible, but dealt from her heart," Wingert said.

Ms. Phillips was born in Everett on Sept. 20, 1918, lived in California for many years and moved to Woodinville in 1977.

She was married and divorced twice — first to Daniel Greene and then Chester Phillips.

She was deeply touched by the deaths of a daughter, Katie, in 1997 from pancreatic cancer and of a son, Arthur, who was killed in an accident at the age of 20.

"Your children aren't supposed to die before you do," Ms. Phillips said in a 1998 interview.

Friends and relatives remember her as a great cook who also donated her time and money to help disadvantaged children.

One such project was Theatre Inside, a drama program for youth incarcerated at Echo Glen Children's Center in Snoqualmie, which she established and where she regularly volunteered.

She was an avid crossroad-puzzle fan and a voracious reader. The living room of her 100-year-old Woodinville farmhouse was lined with bookshelves filled with biographies, dramas, history and literature. Ms. Phillips' bedroom bookshelves overflowed with mysteries, said her daughter, the Rev. Elizabeth Greene of Boise, Idaho.

Occasionally she wrote her own lines for "Northern Exposure," which was filmed locally in Redmond and Roslyn, Kittitas County. She once defended her smoking in an episode about death with, "I've been smoking since I was 13 years old and during the Eisenhower administration I peaked at three packs a day. I'm not about to stop now."

Greene and her husband, Robert Wallace, remember the episode well, because cast members were concerned about Ms. Phillips' smoking.

Movie and television credits include "Waiting for the Light" (1990) with Shirley MacLaine, and made-for-television movies "How the West Was Fun" (1994) and "Chase" (1985).

The most memorable thing about Ms. Phillips was her absolute fire and passion for making a difference and making the world a better place, said Hjelmer Anderson, a Woodinville Repertory board member and the drama teacher at Woodinville high school. Before her death, Anderson and other Repertory backers promised Ms. Phillips they would keep the theater group going.

"She was one of the most amazing people I've ever known," he said. "Other than her family, the theater she started was her great legacy. Anyone who worked with Peg considers themselves vastly enriched by knowing her."

Besides her daughter Elizabeth, Ms. Phillips is survived by daughter Virginia Phillips of Everett; four grandchildren, Betsy Richens of Australia, Scott Hover of Grants Pass, Ore., Christopher Pope of Phoenix, and Barton Hacker of Novato, Calif.; eight great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.

A memorial service will be held at East Shore Unitarian Church, 12700 S.E. 32nd, Bellevue, 1 p.m. Saturday.

At Ms. Phillips' request, memorials may be made to Woodinville Repertory Theatre, P.O. Box 2003, Woodinville, 98072.

http://www.woodinvillerep.org/