Copyright huffingtonpost
British actor Prunella Scales, best known for her performance in the iconic comedy Fawlty Towers, has died at the age of 93. Prunella’s family issued a statement on Tuesday morning announcing that their “darling mother” had “died peacefully at home in London” a day earlier. “Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home,” they said, before revealing she had been revisiting old episodes of Fawlty Towers a day before she died. The statement concluded: “We would like to thank all those who gave Pru such wonderful care at the end of her life: her last days were comfortable, contented and surrounded by love.” Prunella was most famous for her performance as John Cleese’s on-screen wife, Sybil Fawlty, in Fawlty Towers. She began her acting career in the early 1950s, appearing in a string of films before being cast in the BBC sitcom Marriage Lines opposite Richard Briers. Among her other most famous roles were the TV movie A Question Of Attribution, for which she was nominated for a Bafta, as well as After Henry, Howards End, The Shell Seekers and a series of popular adverts for Tesco in the 1990s. Prunella was also a successful stage performer, receiving two Olivier nominations over the course of her career for her work in Make And Break and Single Spies. In 2014, she was diagnosed with vascular dementia, but continued to appear in the travel series Great Canal Journeys with her husband, fellow actor Timothy West. Together, they fronted 10 seasons of Great Canal Journeys, eventually stepping away from the project in 2019. Prunella and Timothy were married in 1963 until his death last year, at the age of 90. She was survived by her two sons and stepdaughter, as well as her seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
