Steve McFadden

Steve McFadden is most famous for playing "hard man" Phil Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role he has portrayed since 1990. He also played Phil in a cameo appearance in Dimensions in Time, the Doctor Who/EastEnders cross-over sketch broadcast during the 1993 Children in Need charity drive to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Doctor Who. In 2003 he left the soap for a year off doing pantomimes. In early 2005 he made a brief return and later, on 24 October 2005, he made another return to EastEnders on a permanent basis. He famously dated Lucy Benjamin, who played his on-screen girlfriend Lisa in EastEnders.

McFadden was dogged by bad publicity in 2005. On 3 November 2005, he was the victim of an assault, believed to have been perpetrated by his ex-partner, who earlier in the year had made claims about McFadden's private life in the tabloid press. The woman was released with a police caution. Apparently coincidentally, this incident took place on the same day that Ross Kemp, the other Mitchell brother in the series, was assaulted by his wife.

Personal life
McFadden was born in Maida Vale, Westminster, London on 20 March 1959. He has three children. He is also a keen sailor and has his own boat.