Actress Prunella Scales, best known for her role as the sarcastic Sybil Fawlty in the classic British comedy. Fawlty Towersdied, her children said Tuesday. She was 93 years old and had dementia.
Scales' sons, Samuel and Joseph West, said she died “peacefully at home in London” on Monday.
“Although dementia forced her to give up a remarkable acting career that lasted nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home,” her sons said. “She looked Fawlty Towers the day before her death.”
Scales' career included his first film roles in the 1952 version. Pride and Prejudice and 1954 comedy Hobson's Choicefollowed by a television turn in the 1960s sitcom. Marriage lines.
IN Fawlty Towersshe played the exasperated but domineering wife of John Cleese's hapless Basil Fawlty, whose efforts to run a seaside hotel inevitably descend into chaos.
The creator of the show was Cleese, then known to viewers from his sketch show. Monty Python's Flying Circusand his then-wife Connie Booth. She played one of the hotel's harried employees, Polly, and Andrew Sachs, who died in 2016, played Spanish waiter Manuel.
Only 12 episodes were filmed in 1975 and 1979, but it is regularly cited as one of the funniest sitcoms and greatest British shows of all time.
Fawlty Towers was later adapted for the stage, including a production that opened in London's famed West End last year.
On Tuesday, Cleese remembered Scales as a “really wonderful comedienne” and a “really sweet woman.”
“I recently watched a few clips Fawlty Towers while working on the book,” Cleese said in a statement. “Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.”
The television series aired on BBC Two. John Petrie, director of BBC Comedy, paid tribute to Scales in a statement on Tuesday.
“She was a national treasure whose brilliance as Sybil Fawlty lit up the screen and still makes us laugh today,” Petrie said. “We send our love and condolences to her family and friends.”
Royal images
Scales' later roles included Queen Elizabeth II in The question of attributionAlan Bennett's stage and television drama about the Queen's arts adviser Anthony Blunt, who was also a Soviet spy. Scales played another British monarch in a one-woman show. An Evening with Queen Victoria.
Scales was married for 61 years to actor Timothy West, who died of natural causes at age 90 in November 2024. West, who played major Shakespearean roles Hamlet, King Lear And Macbeth on stage, and also had recurring roles in British television series. Coronation Street And Easterners.
In 2013, Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia. Between 2014 and 2019, she and West explored waterways in the UK and abroad in a gentle travel show. Travel along the Grand Canals. The program was praised for its honest portrayal of Scales' dementia.
Son Samuel West was also an actor and theater director.
Scales is survived by her sons, stepdaughter Juliet West, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
