What happened to the Phillips lady?

There’s a series of commercials on TV where a lady jumps up in a group of people in a public place, say on a bus, and starts pitching a cure for ‘gas’ or bloating or something like that.

There was one actress who did the first series of commercials, but now she’s gone. There is a look-mostly-alike now doing the commercial.

They’ve gone to some extent to make the replacement look like the original - I get the feeling they’re trying to hide the fact that its a new person.

Has anyone else noticed (or paid attention to) this? What happened to the original? Did she (or her agent) try to stick up the Phillips people? Something else?

When I think “Phillips commercial”, I think of this one, which I find endlessly amusing. Is that the lady you’re talking about?

Yes, I did notice the change yesterday, mainly because I always thought you’d have to have a fairly unique personality to carry off such a peppy, perky discussion with strangers about flatulent matters and the first actress did have that. And yes, the one now is different, close but definitely a replacement. I’ll watch this thread to see what others may find.

Don’t know what happened to her, but my wife thinks all the women in all the commercials are the same person.

Are these the spots? (Actress not identified)

And is this the previous Phillips lady? (Marge Royce)

Looks like the older spots were filmed years ago, although some of the older ones are still airing.

I noticed right away.

The original lady looks like my primary doctor. Makes her more memorable than other commercial actresses.

That was a great campaign, but the best of them was when the final lines were her saying something about inviting people to dinner and her husband saying “We know what you’ll serve.”

OP here.

Yes those are the ladies I was referring to. I’m wondering why number one got replaced. If the originals were several years back, maybe her appearance changed significantly and they didn’t want go to with her. Or maybe she demanded more money. Or she just didn’t want to do it. Or…

Not quite up there with 'What happened to the Malaysian airline?" but it pops up more often…

Probably asks the same questions too.

From what I dug up, the original Phillips lady (Marge Royce) passed away around about March 2015. Other than an obituary on the Screen Actors Guild website, not much is mentioned.

That’s sad, because I liked her. And apparently, so did everyone who met her!