British actress Prunella Scales, cherished by generations as the indomitable Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, has died aged 93.
Her sons confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that “our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died.”
Scales’ passing marks the end of an extraordinary era in British comedy. As the sharp-tongued, quick-witted Sybil opposite John Cleese’s exasperated Basil, she helped turn a modest BBC sitcom into a cultural institution. The chaotic seaside hotel in Torquay, where mayhem was the house special, remains one of television’s most enduring comedic creations.
Married for 61 years to fellow actor Timothy West, who died last November, Scales faced her later years with remarkable grace after being diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013. Even as her memory faded, she continued to work and to charm audiences, later appearing with West in Great Canal Journeys, the tender travel series that offered a candid and loving portrait of their marriage.
Over a seven-decade career, Scales moved effortlessly between stage and screen, from 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines to her regal portrayals of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. She shared the screen with her son, actor Samuel West, in the Oscar-winning Howards End (1992).
Fawlty Towers was named the greatest British sitcom of all time by Radio Times in 2019 and continues to be broadcast and referenced around the world. Its fans will forever hear Sybil’s braying laugh – the one Basil likened to “someone machine-gunning a seal” – as a note of pure comic perfection.
Born in Surrey in 1932 and trained at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, Scales leaves behind two sons, a stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
For many, her laugh, wit and warmth will remain as timeless as the show that made her a household name.
Images: BBC
