Goodbye Timothy West: How acting great played Winston Churchill three times, starred as King Lear on four occasions and was Danny Dyers dad in EastEnders
He was a ruthless self-made businessman in Brass, played Winston Churchill three times and starred as Danny Dyers dad in EastEnders.
He was a ruthless self-made businessman in Brass, played Winston Churchill three times and starred as Danny Dyers dad in EastEnders.
But Timothy West was also the devoted husband of cherished Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales, whose dementia diagnosis defined the last two decades of their life together.
Wests commitment to his wife was on full display on Channel 4 show Great Canal Journeys, which they starred in from 2014 until 2019, despite Scales worsening health.
West, who has died aged 90, was a masterful stage veteran, with highly praised returning roles in productions of Shakespeare plays Macbeth (twice) and King Lear (four times), among others.
The star was also known for TV sitcoms including Not Going Out and Bedtime, along with dramas such as Bleak House and Gentleman Jack.
And he starred in EastEnders as Stan Carter between 2014 and 2015, after a seven-episode role in Coronation Street.
Timothy West, who has died aged 90, portrayed Winston Churchill three times. Above: In his first outing as the wartime prime minister, in Churchill and the Generals in 1979
Timothy West with his wife Prunella Scales at their home in 2023
Prunella and Timothy were forced to quit their Channel 4 TV show, Great Canal Journeys due to her ailing health
He appeared as wartime prime minister Churchill in From Churchill and the Generals (1979), The Last Bastion (1984), and Hiroshima (1995).
Born in Bradford in 1934, Wests parents were actors Lockwood West Olive Carleton-Crewe.
At Bristol Grammar School, his contemporaries included Star Wars star Dave Prowse, who played Darth Vader.
He began his entertainment career as an assistant stage manager at the Wimbledon Theatre, before making his name on stage and screen in 1960s.
He would go on to reach a higher profile when he reprised Shakespearean roles in BBC adaptations of previous stage productions he had starred in.
But it was his long marriage to Scales, who starred as Sybil Fawlty alongside John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, that defined his life.
West starred in Eastenders as Stan Carter, the father of Danny Dyers between 2014 and 2015
Timothy West as Winston Churchill in 1979 TV film Churchill and the Generals, alongside Ian Richardson as Field Marshal Montgomery
Timothy West stars as King Lear in 2003. He played the Shakespeare role on four occasions
Timothy West pictured as Mr Bumble while filming Oliver Twist
West and Scales starring together in When We Were Married in 1986
The couple met in 1960, when they were both working on television play She Died Young, which West later described as terrible.
West was then still married to his first wife, actress Jacqueline Boyer, and so the pair were initially just friends.
Boyer, a manic depressive, left West unsure what I would come home to, he wrote in the Daily Mail in 2003. The pair had daughter Juliet together.
But the marriage collapsed a year after West met Scales. West claimed his wife was having an affair with Rodger the lodger, while he and Scales had also been seeing each other romantically.
He and the Fawlty Towers star then wed in 1963. They spent their honeymoon in Buckinghamshire at what Scales later said she discovered was a dirty weekend place.
West admitted that the couple did used to have fierce rows, including one which led to the actor pulling out some of his wifes hair.
Scales then kept the clump in an envelope. I felt a bit cross that she was making so much of it, West said.
But he touchingly added: Whoever is left when one of us dies will be absolutely devastated.
The couple had two sons Samuel - also an actor - and Joseph together.
In his 2023 memoir, Pru & Me, Sir Timothy told how it was in 2001 when he first noticed signs of his wifes condition.
He saw her perform on stage in Greenwich and noticed that she wasnt completely in character.
I must admit that the wave of emotion that began to engulf me was almost overwhelming, he wrote.
One thought in particular almost floored me: what if its Alzheimers?
Timothy West at home with his wife Prunella Scales and their sons Samuel and Joseph in 1975
Timothy West and his wife Prunella Scales with one of their two sons in the first years of their marriage
Timothy West and Prunella Scales pictured with their son Sam West
The couple tied the knot in 1963, 12 years before Prunella played Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, the role she is most known for
Timothy West with his wife Prunella Scales, at home in South London in December 2023
Timothy West pictured with Queen Camilla in May this year
However, she was not officially diagnosed with vascular dementia until 2013.
He went on: What I miss most of all, I think, is us no longer being able to share our hopes and fears with one another.
You can have a conversation or go to the theatre with anybody, but you cannot bare your soul to just anyone.
Still, my regrets are tempered by the fact that Pru is happy and knows she is loved.
We also have a large and caring family, plenty of friends and a house and garden that Pru feels safe in and adores. Most of all, we have each other.
