Prunella Scales, who played Sybil in British sitcom Fawlty Towers, dies at 93

Actor Prunella Scales, best known as acid-tongued Sybil Fawlty in the classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers, has died, her children said Tuesday. She was 93 and had lived with dementia for many years.

Prunella Scales passes away at 93

Prunella’s sons, Samuel and Joseph West, said she died “peacefully at home in London” on Monday.

“Although dementia forced her retirement from a remarkable acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home,” her sons said. “She was watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died.”

Prunella’s career included early roles in a 1952 television version of Pride and Prejudice and the 1954 film comedy Hobson’s Choice, followed by her TV breakthrough starring opposite Richard Briers in Marriage Lines, a popular 1960s sitcom about a newlywed couple.

In Fawlty Towers she played the exasperated wife of hapless Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, whose efforts to run a seaside hotel inevitably escalated into chaos. John Cleese remembered said, “I’ve recently been watching a number of clips of Fawlty Towers whilst researching a book,” John said in a statement. Scene after scene she was absolutely perfect.”

The actress was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013. Between 2014 and 2019, she and her husband, actor Timothy West, explored waterways in Britain and abroad in the gentle travel show Great Canal Journeys. The program was praised for the way it honestly depicted Prunella’s dementia.

West, her husband of 61 years, died in November 2024. Prunella is survived by her sons, stepdaughter Juliet West, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

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