THE only disappointing thing about meeting Leslie Phillips is the welcome. You expect to hear him sigh one of his trademark "Well, hel-low" greetings rather than "How are you?".

But the distinctive Phillips voice is unmistakable as he reflects on a career that has spanned more than 60 years since he first trod the boards as a child actor at the age of ten.

Phillips is as busy as he's ever been - not only back in Yorkshire, where he spent his early years in rep at York Theatre Royal, to star in a new John Mortimer legal comedy but also taking roles in two of this year's blockbuster films, Tomb Raider and the Harry Potter movie. You can see that the word retirement isn't in his vocabulary.

His own determination has aided the longevity of his career. For years he was regarded as an adept light comedian who moved between British screen comedies (including three each of the Carry On and Doctor films) and stage comedies in a similar vein. He was the epitome of the smooth-tongued English bounder with an eye for the ladies.

This perception was not entirely true, he maintains, as he'd always tried to ring the changes after those early York rep days. He joined the company after the war - when he served in the Durham Light Infantry, despite requesting a posting with a Southern company - and progressed from bit parts to leading ones.

The play that brings him back North to West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds is Naked Justice by John Mortimer, with whom he previously worked on the TV series Summer Lease. He liked Mortimer being at rehearsals, although confesses having author Peter Nichols around while working on Passion Play ("my favourite play") some years ago was more of a problem. "I know with Peter I was more worried because he didn't necessarily want me at the beginning. When I opened I had obviously delighted him because he grabbed me and hugged me," he recalls.

That was tremendously important as that was one of the plays that helped change Phillips's image, although he feels the perception was more overt in the audience than him. "I don't think I changed. I was searching all through the comedy years. I was always going off doing something somewhere that no one ever knew about and I was very much into totally different things before I touched comedy."

He made the positive decision to change 30 years ago. "Instead of following my nose, I wanted to follow my mind," he explains. "I was longing to drop comedies, not per se, but not make them the total dominating factor.

"I wanted to move on which was very difficult because all the old films were continuously on television. So I had to work and take a lot of chances but I'm living a fairly reasonably long life so I've had the time. Retiring never seems to come into it as age doesn't affect actors as it does other professions.

"There was a time when I was very young when I worked to earn a living. There comes a time you find you don't work for money, you work for something else."

Phillips is now part of the repertory company of British actors employed by Hollywood. Spielberg cast him in Empire Of The Sun but his two latest movie roles are even higher profile. In Tomb Raider he plays a friend of Lara Croft's father ("a strange man - you don't know whether he's bent or straight") who plays a key role in setting the plot in motion. The Harry Potter movie, which he has yet to film, will be even more special effects-dominated.

Phillips plays the magical Sorting Hat and landing the role has improved his standing with his grandchildren. "I bought them all the books not knowing I was going to be in the film. Now I've gone up in their estimation. Lara Croft features high on their list - and with me too."

How much of the actor will end up on screen once special effects have worked their magic is unclear. "I don't know what part of my body they will use as I'm meant to be a hat. I'm very thrilled by it. There's an option on doing a second film too," he says.

Naked Justice has two tour dates after Leeds followed by a possible London West End run. With the play, the films and two recent TV series, Take A Girl Like You and Sword Of Honour, to his credit Phillips is rarely out of the public glare.

There are still parts he'd like to play. "You are always thinking about the great roles but at the moment I have enough on my plate with Naked Justice. It's quite tricky and requires the ability to make people laugh and cry," he says.

In his rare moments of relaxation he does admit to re-watching his old movies on TV. "I do enjoy seeing them from the point of view of people not with us any more - and there are an awful lot of them now. People I have worked with who have not lived as long as I have."

l Naked Justice is at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until February 24. Tickets 0113 213 7700. Tomb Raider and the Harry Potter movie will be released later this year.