is a long-running
Fictional Character in the popular
BBC Soap Opera ''
EastEnders ''. He is played by
Steve McFadden .
Phil first arrived in
Albert Square in 1990, along with his brother,
Grant , and sister,
Sam .
He has at various times owned many businesses in the Square, including the
Queen Vic , The Arches, Bridge Street Café and the Snooker Hall, and been married several times.
Phil has been described as a bully who uses his fists when he doesn't get what he wants. He has been involved in several of the show's biggest storylines, including
Sharongate , in which he had an affair with his brother's wife,
Sharon , and was subsequently beaten up by Grant, and, perhaps most notably, the "Who Shot Phil?" saga in
2001 , when the character was gunned down by a mystery shooter on the day of
Steve Owen and
Melanie Healy 's wedding day. There was no shortage of suspects in this classic "whodunnit?". The prime suspect was Steve because he had found out that his new wife Mel had a drunken
One-night Stand with Phil on
Christmas Day 2000 . The culprit eventually turned out to be Phil's ex-girlfriend,
Lisa . Surprisingly Phil forgave Lisa and decided to frame his arch nemesis
Dan Sullivan .
Dan was arrested for the attempted murder of Phil but was rightfully found not guilty at the trial. He decided to kidnap Mel (thinking Steve was the one who shot Phil). Steve and Phil set about rescuing Mel by paying the ransom money he demanded and after she was released Dan left Walford with the money.
Steve then started a vendetta against Phil which he was about to lose. He planned to flee to the United States with Mel, Lisa, her boyfriend, Mark Fowler, and daughter, Louise (who was the daughter of Steve's arch-nemesis, Phil Mitchell). After Mark was unable to go, and was Lisa torn as to what to do, the plan was falling apart close to the day of departure. Steve had to sort a few things out, and Phil was hot on his trail (baby Louise was in the back of Steve's car). After a high-speed car chase Steve swirved and crashed into a wall. Phil rushed to get Louise out of the car. He went back for Steve but the car exploded into flames with Steve inside.
Also notable was the episode in which Phil and Grant's car plunged into the
River Thames in
1999 . The Mitchell brothers had fallen out after Grant slept with Phil's ex-wife Kathy (possibly in revenge for the "Sharongate" saga), and while fleeing in a getaway car from a "job" that had gone wrong, Phil confronted Grant and the two entered into a heated argument. Phil started shooting at the dashboard, causing Grant to lose control of the car, which plunged into the river. The brothers managed to escape the sinking vehicle, and Grant then fled to
Brazil .
In
2003 , Phil and
Den Watts planned a robbery, but Den set Phil up (in revenge for treating Den's daughter, Sharon, so badly over the years and having his son
Dennis beaten up) and he was arrested for armed robbery. He escaped and attacked Den on
Christmas Day . Den, seeing no other option, gave Phil enough money to survive for a while on the run so Phil left Walford and wasn't seen for a whole year.
In April
2005 , Phil returned to
Albert Square desperate for cash. In desperation, he attacked his old enemy,
Ian Beale . Ian tricked him into believing he was going to help him get away but Ian called the police. Phil ran from the police, who by now were crawling around the Square, and he burst into the houses of
Pat Evans , Ian Beale and the Fowlers in a bid to hide/ escape. In a stand-off outside the pub, he attacked a few policemen but was caught and remanded in custody.
On Monday
24th October 2005, Phil returned to the Square on a permanent basis. The case of armed robbery had fallen through, after brother Grant (who also returned on the same night) used money to influence some of the witnessess involved. Peggy Mitchell had also employed the help of what was - according to
Johnny Allen - one of the most crooked lawyers in London.
Phil and Grant then set about trying to prove the innocence of their sister, Sam, in the murder of Den Watts, who had in fact been killed by his wife
Chrissie , who then framed Sam.
The brothers still felt much resentment towards each other, but working together towards a common goal enabled the pair to build bridges and bury much of the past.
In December 2005 it transpired that Phil had paid 27-year-old
Juley Smith to begin a relationship with Johnny Allen's 17-year-old daughter
Ruby .
On New Year's Eve 2005,
Dennis got involved with Phil's feud with Johnny. He was ready to leave Albert Square for good with his wife after being convinced by her that they should make a new start in America. Dennis did not know that Sharon had been threatened by Johnny Allen for interfering in his business involving Juley and Ruby and that he would die if they had not left by midnight on 31 December 2005. Sharon told Phil Mitchell all about it. Phil had been wanting revenge on Johnny for some time. As Sharon and Dennis were about to leave, they were stopped by Ian Beale who asked where they were going. Sharon then went to Pauline Fowler's New Year's Eve party, and Dennis was left with Phil. Phil took Dennis back to Dennis's flat and told him everything that Johnny had done to Sharon, as well as telling him Johnny had murdered Dennis's old friend,
Andy Hunter . Dennis got angry and went to see Johnny who was in the office of his nightclub. Dennis beat Johnny up, and Johnny begged for help as he thought he was dying. Dennis threw a mobile phone at him and said if he could reach the phone then he could live. Dennis left and went to wash the blood off his hands at Pauline's (Sharon and everyone else had since moved on to the Queen Vic). Phil went over to see Johnny and found him lying on the floor of his office, seemingly dead. He was not dead though, and had made a phone to a hitman to murder Dennis. Dennis was walking across the square to meet Sharon and was stabbed by a couple of paces away from Sharon by a hitman sent by Johnny. Phil was feeling guilty that he is partly responsible for Dennis' death and also discovered Sharon was pregnant and will have a baby later in the year.
In January
2006 Phil Mitchell left Walford again with ex-lover and good friend,
Sharon Rickman after the murder of Sharon's beloved husband,
Dennis Rickman . As they left Phil vowed to make Johnny pay.
He returned in late
March and was shocked to discover his ex-wife Kathy had died and his son Ben has been back in Walford living with his step-brother Ian. Phil was furious that he had not been told that Ben was back in Walford. He attacked Ian at Ben's birthday party for not telling him and Ben saw it and got upset.
Jane Collins , Ian's girlfriend took Ben to see Phil at the Arches, and they got on well, but Ian came and broke up the meeting. Phil was just about to drink some alcohol, when his brother Grant walked into the Arches with an "'Ello, bruv!". They went out to Essex to find Johnny Allen and confront him about Dennis's death. Phil wanted a confession from Johnny that he killed Dennis. Grant found out about the nasty things Phil had been doing while he was away in Brazil such as paying
Juley Smith to sleep with Johnny's daughter Ruby just to make him suffer. Johnny then got
Danny Moon to capture the Mitchell brothers and under orders from Johnny he took them to the forest and was supposed to kill them. He was just about to kill Grant when Danny's brother
Jake Moon turned up and shot Danny and instantly killed him. He revealed that Danny had told him he was the hitman sent by Johnny to kill Dennis. After Johnny surrended himself to the police with the persuasion of Ruby, Phil and Grant returned to Walford.
Phil has been with many
Walford women and has been married three times.
He had an affair with
Grant's wife,
Sharon , which was uncovered two years after it had happened; he was briefly married to
Romanian immigrant, Nadia Borovac, so that she could stay in the country. They divorced when Phil wanted to marry
Kathy Beale , which he did.
He had a son, Ben, with Kathy in
1995 . The marriage turned stormy when Phil became an alcoholic and turned violent towards his wife. He had an affair with another alcoholic, and Kathy walked out. She slept with his brother,
Grant (partly as revenge for when Phil slept with Grant's wife years earlier), and had a fling with a vicar, Reverend Alex Healy. Kathy then fled to
South Africa with Ben to live with her brother.
Phil had a rocky romance with
Lisa Shaw , and towards the end, he became verbally abusive toward her and threw her out. He had a one-night stand with
Melanie Healy , Lisa's best friend, but Mel planned to marry
Steve Owen , another nemesis of Phil's. On the day of Mel and Steve's wedding in March 2001, Phil was shot by a mystery person and Steve was a suspect. It turned out Lisa had shot him in revenge for treating her badly. Phil confronted her with the truth (he had seen her running after she fired the bullet), but instead of reporting her to the police, he decided to set up his arch-nemesis
Dan Sullivan for the shooting, as he wanted to deal with Lisa in a more personal way. After Phil broke up with Lisa, she started a relationship with his enemy,
Mark Fowler , who deeply cared for her. Lisa found out she was pregnant with Phil's child, but in a bid to erase their past, she and Mark decided to pretend it was his. Lisa never truly loved Mark, and they both knew this; however, they married shortly after baby Louise's birth.
When Phil's ex-lover
Sharon Watts returned in May 2001, they gave their relationship another try and ran
The Queen Victoria together. Phil wanted children, but Sharon revealed that she couldn't have them, and that baby Louise Fowler was really his daughter. This revelation ended Phil's relationship with Sharon, and he confronted Lisa about baby Louise, demanding that he become part of his child's life.
After just five months of marriage with Mark, Lisa began an affair with Phil. She moved in with him, and eventually Phil and the rest of the Mitchells slowly pushed Lisa away from her daughter until she was a virtual stranger. She realised that getting back with Phil was a huge mistake, and escaped with the baby to
Portugal , with Phil in hot pursuit. Phil arrived back a month later with Louise, but not Lisa. Some residents suspected Phil of killing her.
Phil fell for manicurist
Kate Tyler , but she was really an undercover cop called Kate Morton, who was investigating Lisa's disappearance (and possible death) in Portugal. After gaining a confession from Phil (that he mentally manipulated Lisa into handing over their daughter in flashback), Kate in turn admitted who she really was. She admitted that she was in love with Phil and would give up her job for him. Phil eventually forgave her, and they married. At their wedding Lisa made a surprise return. When Kate threw the bouquet of flowers none other than Lisa caught it. Lisa was no longer the shivering wreck she once was, and she made it clear that she wanted access to Louise. She planned to shoot Phil again, and finish the job, but she came to her senses just in time when Den Watts shortly after his return assured her Phil would get what he deserved. When Phil was arrested for armed robbery, Kate left Phil and handed over Louise to Lisa, who fled
Walford .
In
2006 Phil Mitchell left Walford again with ex-lover and good friend,
Sharon Rickman after the murder of Sharon's beloved husband,
Dennis Rickman and promised her he would avenge Dennis' death for her.
