Philip Charles Anglim (born February 11, 1953) is an American actor best known for his performance as Joseph Merrick in the stage and television versions of The Elephant Man, a role for which he received a Best Actor nomination in the 1979 Tony Awards. Other notable roles include Macbeth on Broadway and Dane O'Neill, the ill-fated love child who grew up to follow in his unknown father's footsteps on the path to the priesthood, in the television mini-series The Thorn Birds. He also had a recurring guest role as the Bajoran priest Vedek Bareil on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Biography

Anglim was born in San Francisco, California. His father, a Catholic of Irish descent, worked as a patent attorney, while his mother, Paule Anglim, was of French and Jewish descent and was a San Francisco art dealer. He originally aspired to become a veterinarian, but after he was asked to appear in a play by one of his teachers, he switched to acting. Anglim graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature from Yale University in 1973. Subsequently, Anglim spent a year in Connecticut at the Southbury Playhouse.

His feature film debut was in The All-American Boy (1973), and his first television appearance was in the PBS The Adams Chronicles (1976). In 1979, while still an unknown, Anglim optioned the London play The Elephant Man, and debuted off-Broadway at St. Peter's Church. It later moved to The Booth Theater on Broadway in 1979, and earned several awards. He performed Macbeth on Broadway in 1981 (in which he was replaced by Kelsey Grammer) and again on TV in 1982. In 1982, Anglim appeared in the NBC television version of The Elephant Man, and earned Best Actor nominations for the performance.

Anglim also maintains a cattle farm in Tennessee, and in 1992, founded The Lewis County Children's Fund, to help children in the area.