British actress Prunella Scales, best known for her iconic role as Sybil Fawlty in the beloved sitcom ‘Fawlty Towers’, has died aged 93.
Her family said she passed away peacefully at home in London after a long battle with vascular dementia.
Over a seven-decade career, Scales starred in Howards End, A Question of Attribution, and An Evening with Queen Victoria, earning widespread acclaim for her versatility as a performer.
Celebrated for her sharp comic timing and enduring presence on stage and screen, she continued working well into her later years, leaving a lasting legacy in British television and theatre.
Best known as Sybil Fawlty in ‘Fawlty Towers’, Scales worked across stage, screen, and radio for nearly seven decades. Early television success came with ‘Marriage Lines’; later credits included ‘Mapp & Lucia’ and ‘Howards End’, and she earned a BAFTA nomination for portraying Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett’s ‘A Question of Attribution’.
In recent years she and West shared ‘Great Canal Journeys’, inviting viewers along as they navigated the waterways – and life with dementia – bringing warmth, wit, and quiet honesty to a subject many families know well (while also sharing great stories and scenery).
Prunella Scales has died aged 93, less than a year after the death of her beloved husband and long-time collaborator, Timothy West. According to her family, she passed peacefully at home in London.
