Veteran British actress Prunella Scales, best known for her unforgettable portrayal of the sharp-tongued Sybil in the classic sitcom Fawlty Towers, has died at the age of 93, her family announced on Tuesday.
Her sons, Samuel and Joseph, said the actress passed away “peacefully at home in London” on Monday.
“She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died,” they shared in a statement on X, adding that her final days were “comfortable, contented and surrounded by love.”
Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013 but continued working for several years, often alongside her husband, acclaimed actor Timothy West, who died in November 2024 aged 90. The couple, married for 61 years, also appeared together in the Channel 4 travel series Great Canal Journeys.
It was, however, her role as Sybil Fawlty — the witty, exasperated wife of hotelier Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese — that made Scales a national treasure. The BAFTA-winning Fawlty Towers, co-written by Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth, ran for just 12 episodes between 1975 and 1979 but became one of Britain’s most beloved comedies.
Cleese paid tribute to his former co-star, saying he had been “very, very fond” of Scales. “She was a really wonderful comic actress … Scene after scene, she was absolutely perfect,” he said.
Downing Street also honoured her legacy, with the prime minister’s spokesman describing Scales as “a part of the golden era of British comedy, someone whose talent was beamed into people’s homes over many years.”
In 2019, Fawlty Towers was voted the greatest British sitcom of all time by a panel of experts for Radio Times magazine.
Throughout her career spanning nearly seven decades, Scales took on a wide range of roles, including playing Queen Elizabeth II in A Question of Attribution and performing a solo show titled An Evening With Queen Victoria.
She is survived by two sons, a stepdaughter, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.