Phillip "Phil" Petrillo

Phillip "Phil" Petrillo was the son of Salvatore "Sal" Petrillo and Sophia Petrillo and the brother of Gloria Harker and Dorothy Zbornak. He was a cross-dresser who was married to Angela with children. Sadly, Phil suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 55.

Note
Since Phil was an unseen character his details are thin but this Biography is based on the fragments that we have of him.

Born in 1935 in Brooklyn, New York to Salvatore and Sophia Petrillo via Caesarean birth, Phil was dressed in Dorothy's baby hand-me-downs, which Sophia believed he would grow out of, but that never happened. Instead, he spent his childhood as a cross-dresser. During high school, however, he was still wearing dresses when Dorothy's old teacher came to visit. He apologized to Sophia, saying that they couldn't fix the problem with the dress code, but Phil did wear boys' clothes, and he even wore a suit one Halloween. He wore a wedding dress when he married Angela, whom Sophia called "Big Sally" because she thought she was trashy. They lived in New Jersey in a Trailer Park. Dorothy and Sophia would reference to him like they did other unseen family members. Sophia would complain that he rarely called and that when he did call, he used a pay phone.

In the episode "Golden Moments," Angela left him and while Sophia rarely visited, she did go when there were problems. During the episode the girls try to convince Sophia to stay, but she has a lot of problems, but just as the girls are about to give up, Sophia tells them that Phil and Angela are back together.

Death and Aftermath
Phil died in 1990 of a heart attack while trying on women's clothes in a women's clothing store dressing room. He was 55. At the funeral, Phil's lifeless body was wearing a black nightie, and Dorothy said that he looked like he died in a Benny Hill sketch. Dorothy is also asked to give a eulogy, and she's angry, because she never expected to give the eulogy. After the priest sees Phil's black nightie, he decides to do the funeral for free.

Phil's widow, Angela spends a week with the girls and learns why Sophia never visited as much, which upset Phil. Sophia claims it was because she never got the dowry from Angela's father for $47. Angela gives her the money, but there's something more that's upsetting Sophia, so Rose uses her grief counseling experiences to get Sophia to talk about it. Sophia said she was ashamed of Phil's cross-dressing and asked Angela why she never stopped it. Angela told Sophia that it was something he did all his life. Rose makes a point that Phil was a decent father and husband, and a good provider, and Sophia shouldn't allow herself to be consumed by her shame of his differences, and there was nothing wrong with her loving him for who he was. Sophia admitted that she did love her son, but she always wondered what she said and did to make him the way that he was. Angela tells Sophia: "What he was, Sophia, was a good man." Sophia breaks down crying and says: "My baby is gone." and Angela hugs her.

Trivia

 * He was nursed until he was 12. He wanted to come home from school during lunchtimes.
 * He was Dorothy's opposite in knowledge, as he cared little for books while Dorothy was the overachiever.
 * Sophia revealed that every Christmas he makes her a model of the Nativity in Cheese.
 * Phil was a fire starter as a kid which Dorothy thought was the reason Sophia left her in charge.
 * Only one of his kids was named Harvey.
 * While in A Little Romance Phil is meant to have 10 kids but in Golden Moments there is 6 (Angela took 4 with her) there might 2 reasons, one the writers have made one of many mistakes again, or two of the missing 4 kids had grown up and move out.
 * When the script for Phil's funeral was sent to the cast, actress Estelle Getty, who played Sophia, asked for jokes her character were to give at Phil's coffin cut. Getty felt that mothers would never do this, and the jokes were considered too homophobic in nature. The writers acceded to her request
 * In “Mary Has a Little Lamb” Sophia revealed that Phil has a pet poodle who likes to wear a tutu and hop around on it hind legs. This is most likely like a dance because Dorothy mention how Phil would look stupid doing it by himself.
 * Sophia never let Phil read comic books but when he was 16, Phil and Sophia shared an underwear drawer.