Legendary actor Timothy West, who enjoyed a glittering six-decade career on television and the stage, has died aged 90, Daily Mail reports.
According to the report by Daily Mail, Mr Timothy 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’.
Timothy West married his wife Prunella in 1963, before she played John Cleese’s on-screen wife Sybil Fawlty in the iconic British comedy series. The actress was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014.
In an interview with The Daily Mail in 2023, Timothy revealed the heartache at seeing his wife, who he cared for during their six-decade marriage, slip away amid her health battle.
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.
Together, the couple had two sons, Joseph and actor Samuel West, 58, who is currently starring in All Creatures Great and Small. West was also married to actor Jacqueline Boyer from 1956 to 1961, and they had a daughter, Juliet.
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 was formally diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014, though the signs of her illness were there long before.
West revealed in his book that the actress had kept slipping her lines during a 2003 production of Oscar Wilde’s A Woman Of No Importance at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End.
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.”