Prunella Scales has died at the age of 93 after a decade-long battle with dementia that ended her 67-year acting career.
The Fawlty Towers icon was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014.
The actress died "peacefully at home in London yesterday,” her sons Samuel and Joseph said.
A statement from the heartbroken siblings read: “Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She was 93.
“Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home.
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“She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died.
“Pru was married to Timothy West for 61 years. He died in November 2024.
“She is survived by two sons and one stepdaughter, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
“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 had continued to work and travel around the world well into her 90s, according to her son Samuel.
The actress was best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, the stern wife of John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty in classic Seventies sitcom Fawlty Towers.
The show ran for two series of six episodes each in 1975 and 1979 and is considered one of the best British comedy series ever made.
She appeared in soap Coronation Street between January and February 1961 as bus conductress Eileen Hughes.
And played Queen Victoria more than 400 times in a play written for her by Katrina Hendrey in 1979.
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She would reprise the role of Victoria in the 2003 BBC docu-drama Victoria: An Intimate History.
And as recently as August 2024 she reprised the role again aged 92 to provide voice over for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The production, Queen, saw Prunella voice an 81-year-old Victoria, reading out her letters.
Julian Machin, a stage manager on the original production, said Prunella’s acting was impressive even despite her dementia.
He told The Telegraph: “Although Prunella has vascular dementia, which greatly affects her in many ways, she absolutely retains longer-term memory of herself and her working experience.”
Prunella sees recording machinery and “just goes into it,” he revealed in another interview with The Guardian, adding: “It just took her back into herself. It was quite astonishing.”
Asked in September 2024 if she liked playing royals, Prunella told The Times: “I don’t. When you say ‘like playing queens’ there aren’t any queens that I want to play.
“But the queens I have played have all been interesting people with interesting jobs and interesting lives.
“And that’s why I like playing them. I don’t like playing queens as such.”
Prunella also claimed to find questions about her most famous role on Fawlty Towers “irritating” and “boring”.
Prunella was 43 years old when Fawlty Towers filming began, playing Sybil over two series in 1975 and 1979. She reprised the role for a Children in Need special in 2007.
John Cleese previously revealed the role of Sybil had originally been offered to Bridget Turner, who turned down the part claiming “it wasn’t right for her”.
In later life, between 2014 and 2019, Prunella filmed Great Canal Journeys, a Channel 4 series celebrating their love of narrow boating.
She was diagnosed with vascular dementia, a form of the disease caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, in 2014.
Although Prunella has vascular dementia, which greatly affects her in many ways, she absolutely retains longer-term memory of herself and her working experience, - Julian Machin, a stage manager on the original production of Queen.
Her husband Timothy West described her condition in his memoir Pru and Me.
He revealed he had consulted the couple’s GP about her memory a year before her diagnosis – but had been told not to worry.
Speaking to the BBC soon after the couple’s diamond wedding anniversary in 2023, he said: “Somehow we have coped with it and Pru doesn’t really think about it.”
She told The Times in September 2024 her memory was “less good” but added that not being able to work would make her “very depressed”.
She added: “If we’re out of work, we get very depressed. As one gets older, one’s memory and living from minute to minute changes, doesn’t it? You get less efficient.”
The couple’s son Sam revealed in October 2024 Prunella was “fine” and “enjoying a cruise”.
He added: “I’m not sure if she knew where she was but she enjoyed getting there.”
Earley years
Prunella was born in Surrey in 1932, the daughter of actress Catherine (née Scales) and cotton salesman John Richardson Illingworth.
At the start of the Second World War in 1939 the family was evacuated to Devon.
By 1942 Prunella was given a scholarship to Moira House School, which had been evacuated from Eastbourne to a hotel on Lake Windermere in Lancashire.
She started her career as an assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic in 1951, but had “always wanted to be an actor”.
Her break as an actor came in the 1960s when she appeared in sitcom Marriage Lines.
Fawlty Towers came in the 1970s and by the end of the 1980s and 90s she’d performed in 11 films.
In 1993 she voiced Mrs Tiggy-Winkle in The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends.
For 10 years she appeared in an iconic set of Tesco adverts alongside roles as Miss Bates in a TV-movie adaptation of Emma in 1996 and as Minny Stinkler in comedy film Mad Cows in 1997.
She was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in 1999 before being appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1992 Birthday Honours List.
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