Stage and Screen Actress Prunella Scales Passes Away at Age 93

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Prunella Scales, a longtime actress of the stage and screen, has passed away at the age of 93. Her death comes nearly a year after that of her late husband, actor Timothy West, with whom she was married for more than 60 years. She has previously been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and lived with the disease for several years. 

Scales, best known for her performance as Sybil Fawlty in the BBC series Fawlty Towers, has a long background in theater work, having received training at the Old Vic Theatre School. Following a stint as an assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic, she began to regularly appear on the British stages and screen as a performer. 

Early film credits included a BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, Laxdale Hall, and Hobson's Choice. She appeared on Broadway only once, as Emengarde in a 1955 production of The Matchmaker. She received Olivier Award nominations in 1980 for Make and Break, and in 1990 for Single Spies. 

She also gained recognition for her performances as Queen Elizabeth in Alan Bennett's play A Question of Attribution, which premiered at The National Theatre in 1988, with direction by Simon Callow. 

In addition to her celebrated role on television in Fawlty Towers, she appeared in many movies and television series throughout the 70s, 80, and 90s, including The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Wicked Lady, Howards End, and An Awfully Big Adventure. One of her final projects was Great Canal Journeys, which followed Scales and her late husband as they journeyed across canals in Britain and Europe. 

She is survived by her two sons, Samuel and Joseph.