The 90-Year-Old Timothy West Has Passed Away

At the age of 90, legendary actor Timothy West passed away after a dazzling six-decade career on stage and television.

Mr West, who starred in shows Brass, Edward the Seventh, EastEnders, and Great Canal Journeys with his Fawlty Towers star wife Prunella Scales, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends.

His children Juliet, Samuel, and Joseph West announced the tragic news with a shared statement on social media, saying he died peacefully in his sleep ‘with his friends and family at the end’.

Before Prunella’s role as John Cleese’s on-screen wife Sybil Fawlty in the renowned British comedy series, Timothy married her in 1963. In 2014, the actress received a diagnosis of vascular dementia.

In a 2023 interview with The Daily Mail, Timothy talked of his grief at watching his wife, whom he had looked after over their six-decade marriage, deteriorate due to a health issue.

Prunella and Timothy previously starred together in their own Channel 4 TV show, Great Canal Journeys, between 2014 and 2021, but were forced to quit due to her ailing health.

Joseph and Samuel West, a 58-year-old actor who presently stars in All Creatures Great and Small, are the couple’s two sons together. In addition, West had a daughter named Juliet from his 1956–1961 marriage to actor Jacqueline Boyer.

The statement announcing Mr West’s death read: ‘After a long and extraordinary life on and off the stage, our darling father Timothy West died peacefully in his sleep yesterday evening. He was 90 years old.

‘Tim was with friends and family at the end. He leaves his wife, Prunella Scales, to whom he was married for 61 years, a sister, a daughter, two sons, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. All of us will miss him terribly.

‘We would like to thank the incredible NHS staff at St George’s Hospital, Tooting and at Avery Wandsworth for their loving care during his last days.’

Prunella had symptoms of vascular dementia for a long time before receiving an official diagnosis in 2014.

During a 2003 staging of Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End, the actress repeatedly fumbled her lines, as West disclosed in his book.

In an interview with the BBC last year, West said he recalled every word of that life-changing moment when the doctor finally diagnosed her condition: ‘We went to see a specialist who said, ‘Sorry, this is just something which happens to you when you are older and it’s not going to get any easier, but you can cope with it. Don’t let it get you down.”

Mr. West featured in television series including Coronation Street, EastEnders, the sitcom Not Going Out, and the comedy-drama Brass.

He portrayed brutal, self-made industrialist Bradley Hardacre in Brass from 1982 to 1984 before making a comeback for a third series in 1990. In Not Going Out, he portrayed Lucy Adams’s father, Geoffrey, who was portrayed by Sally Bretton.

He portrayed Eric Babbage in seven episodes of Coronation Street in 2013, then from 2014 to 2015, he played Stan Carter in EastEnders.

During his career, West also played former British prime minister Winston Churchill three times, in From Churchill and the Generals (1979), The Last Bastion (1984), and Hiroshima (1995).

In 2019, the Bradford-born actor played Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes, a recreation of three missing episodes of the BBC comedy Dad’s Army.

His film roles included Commissioner Berthier in The Day Of The Jackal (1973), King Francis in From Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998), and Nazi physician and war criminal Karl Gebhardt in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973).

On stage, he was a regular performer of Shakespeare, playing Lear in 2016 and 2002.

He performed at the Piccadilly Theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and the West End, portraying many classic roles, including Shylock, Falstaff, and Macbeth.

In 1984, West was appointed CBE for his services to drama in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Before acting, West had attended the John Lyon School and Bristol Grammar School and worked as an office furniture salesman and a recording technician before becoming an assistant stage manager at Wimbledon Theatre in 1956.

Emotional messages have poured in following his death. Paying tribute to West on Times Radio, broadcaster Dame Joanna Lumley, who campaigned alongside him to destigmatise dementia, said he would be a ‘huge loss to everybody’.

She said: ‘Timothy really will be a huge loss, obviously, to Pru, but I think a huge loss to everybody who came to love and respect them, not just the general public, but particularly those who live with dementia.’

Dame Joanna continued: ‘I think between them, Timothy and Pru did an amazing, amazing job of convincing people that dementia was not something that you should be always afraid of, but something that you could embrace and live with and live with well.’

TalkTV presenter Piers Morgan, 59, paid tribute to the ‘wonderful’ man, alongside a photo with Timothy from when he appeared on My Life Stories.

He wrote, ‘A wonderful actor and delightful man. My Life Stories interview with him, as the love of his life Prunella Scales sat in the audience, was so moving. 

‘They were married 61 years, and his devotion to her after she developed Alzheimer’s was profoundly touching.’

Mr Dreyfus wrote on X: ‘Marvellous actor. A constant in many of our lives. He shall be much missed. My thoughts with his family. RIP Timothy West.’

Alongside a sweet picture of Timothy, Gyles Brandreth, 76, said, ‘Cheers, Tim! And thank you. A marvellous man—a marvellous actor, husband, father, friend. 

‘On stage, on screen, on a canal boat, on the end of a pier (he loved a seaside pier!), in the garden with a glass of wine, he was just the best. The great Timothy West has died at 90; what a worthwhile, well-filled life.’

The list of Timothy West tributes was endless!

He was a fantastic performer, and he and Prunella Scales had a long and enduring marriage that was a real love affair. He was so devoted to taking care of her, too.

In addition, I want to express my deepest sympathies to Prunella and her family for the amazing and contented life they shared. All couples should find a lot of inspiration in this.

This man spent much of his life in an affectionate relationship and lived to a delightful old age.

He had a fantastic career, was loved by a large family and lots of friends, and lived a comfortable life in terms of financial security. In reality, as we know it, dementia is cruel and robs people of their short-term memory and in time, if not already, Prunella would have been unlikely to have recognised him, but death comes to us all, but what an incredible legacy he leaves behind.