Lee Philips was born  as Leon Friedman on January 10, 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. His parents were Abraham & Frances Friedman from Poland and Russia, respectively. After attending public schools in Brooklyn he went to study (Bachelor of Arts) at the Adelphi College, Garden City, Long Island in New York with Harold Clurman (theatre director and drama critic). Whilst in college he started performing with an off-Broadway group Interplayers at The Circle Theatre, ....
Philips' original intention was to be a writer, but he changed to acting on the advice of veteran showman, John Golden, who saw him in a school production.

Philips majored in creative writing and after graduation (Class of 1950) he married another Adelphi graduate and actress Jean Allison but were later divorced amicably.

He worked in the toy department of a New York store and in the Christmas season, in the post office. At the same time he was studying acting with Sanford Meisner.
His first major break came when he was cast as the artist in Time of the Cuckoo for Shirley Booth's national touring company.

Appeared in two classic 1950s television productions: an episode of The Philco Television Playhouse: "Marty" (1953) and Studio One's "12 Angry Men" (1954) where, credited as Lee Phillips, he was Juror Number 5.  Surely one of the high points in the history of television. The script was re-written for the stage in 1955 and made into a movie in 1957.

As sober, good-looking dramatic actor, this Navy veteran's acting career started on Broadway where in Jan 1954 he made his debut with an understudy role with Mademoiselle Colombe which was short-lived. (Jan 06. 1954 - Feb 27. 1954). In Wedding Breakfast he replaced Anthony Franciosa (from Jan. 11 1955 until closing in Feb 26. 1955). He had some success whilst performing as the husband in Broadway's Middle of the Night (Feb 08. 1956 - May 25. 1957). His popularity really peaked when he played Dr. Michael Rossi in Lana Turner's film version of Peyton Place (1957).  No with any difficulty. Turner's lover at the time, the notorious Johnny Stompanato, would stand behind the camera and intently watch the actress during her scenes with Lee Philips.

Philips met his wife Barbara Schrader when she was a production assistant on the TV's Appointment with Adventure ("Devil Beast"- Mar 25. 1956) on which he was appearing. He appeared in a Off-Broadway play on Dec 18. called U.S.A. (5) and married a few days later on Dec 23. 1956. On Oct. 9 1957 their first daughter Caitlin Meg was born. Both Philips and his wife were devoted to the poetry of Dylan Thomas and chose Thomas' wife name for their daughter.

Past the halfway point of The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen series (1958), he took over as Ellery Queen. Philips played Ellery as a man of awareness and compassion, substantially closer to the original concepts. Using only original scripts the show was produced on videotape rather than live and the title was shortened to Ellery Queen.

In 1959 he again appeared in his Broadway success Middle of the Night, this time on the movie screen opposite Kim Novak.