Valerie Ogden Phillips, longtime actress and former board president of the Pa. SPCA, has died at 85
She played a nurse in the 1970 Gene Hackman film “I Never Sang for My Father” and appeared in a soap opera, a French movie production, and commercials on TV.
Valerie Ogden Phillips, 85, of Chestnut Hill, longtime actress, former board president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, onetime chair of the Mayor’s Animal Advisory Committee, author, and Wall Street financier, died Monday, July 7, of pulmonary fibrosis at her family’s home in New Hope, Bucks County.
Mrs. Phillips was born in New York and began her career after college in finance with Merrill Lynch on Wall Street. But what her family called her “compassion and flair” led her to abandon the corner office for the stage and screen, and eventually her family’s farm in New Hope.
Naturally affable and expressive, she studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and Ecole du Louvre in Paris, and earned roles in theater and movies, and on TV. She has a credit on imdb.com as a nurse in the 1970 Gene Hackman film I Never Sang for My Father, and she appeared in a soap opera, a French movie production, and commercials on TV.
She was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Actors’ Equity Association. She was especially adept at voice-overs in the 1980s.
“Valerie’s charm was unique and unforgettable,” her family said in a tribute. “Wit and vivid character was laced in her every word.”
She married attorney Walter Phillips Jr. in 1972, and they moved from New York to Philadelphia a few years later. They settled in Chestnut Hill in 1982, and she combined her love for animals and contentment on the family farm to create a rural rescue sanctuary that was home to rams, sheep, goats, horses, chickens, pigs, cats, and dogs.
“She cared for and loved each one deeply,” her family said. Her daughter, Serena Sterling, said: “She danced and sang to the dogs.”
As board president of the Pennsylvania SPCA from 1998 to 2010, active in SPCA International, and onetime chair of Mayor Ed Rendell’s Animal Advisory Committee, Mrs. Phillips supervised animal rescue programs around the world, addressed animal cruelty complaints, organized animal health clinics, and spoke at public events.
“She saw the human condition in animals,” her son, Graham, said.
She was a lifelong reader and writer, and her 80-page book, Saving Apollo, was published in 2021. It recounts the harrowing true travails of Apollo, a lovable dog born into Middle East war zones, and his search for a safe home in the United States.
“The narrative highlights that incredible and very special bond between dogs and humans,” Rendell said on the book cover. Mrs. Phillips also published a cookbook in 2005 and Bluebeard: Brave Warrior, Brutal Psychopath in 2014.
In a 2014 radio interview about Bluebeard, she said: “I did not dedicate it to my dogs or my husband or my children. I dedicate it to ‘the end of cannonballs’ because I feel that is so important.”
She spoke French, wrote movie reviews, worked as a radio disc jockey, and edited articles for House & Garden magazine. She was treasurer for the Democratic Committee in Philadelphia’s Ninth Ward and campaigned vigorously for her husband and other political office seekers.
She was profiled by the Chestnut Hill Local when her last two books were published, and she talked about Apollo in 2021. “He had incredible fortitude,” she said. “Life was such a joy to him.”
Valerie Sterling Ogden was born March 29, 1940. She grew up in Greenwich, Conn., was good at math, economics, and finance, and earned a bachelor’s degree with honors at Wheaton College in Massachusetts in 1961.
She was curious about people. She made friends easily and ran a bed-and-breakfast at the farm in New Hope for 13 years.
“She was a firecracker,” her daughter said. “She really enjoyed learning about others and playing different characters. There was so much passion behind everything she got into.”
Her son said: “She was always looking for something to be an activist for. She had a deep sense of humanity.”
In addition to her children, Mrs. Phillips is survived by three grandchildren and other relatives. Her husband, a sister, and a brother died earlier.
Privates services are to be held later.
Donations in her name may be made to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 350 E. Erie Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19134; and Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Box 8682, New York, N.Y. 10116.