British actress Prunella Scales, best known for Fawlty Towers, has died.
British actress prunella scales, best known for Fawlty Towersdied, aged 93.
She died yesterday “peacefully at home in London,” her sons Samuel and Joseph said.
They added that they were watching Fawlty Towers the day before she died. In 2013, she was diagnosed with vascular dementia.
“Our dear mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday. She was 93,” her sons told the PA News Agency.
“Although dementia forced her to retire from a distinguished acting career of nearly 70 years, she continued to live at home.”
Scales was best known for playing hotel manager Sybil Fawlty, the long-suffering and domineering wife of Basil (John Cleese), in the classic British sitcom.
Sybil – with her permed hair and sharp skirt suits – lorded it over her bumbling and often unhappy husband as they both tried to run a hotel in Torquay. When he was on the brink of a crisis, she often stepped in to clean up his mess or take advantage of his misfortune.
He called her a number of negative nicknames, including “the dragon” and “my little piranha fish,” but only behind her back.
Speaking of her character, Scales once said: “I’m very grateful for Sybil. Fawlty Towers was very difficult to make, but it was very stimulating.
This year marks 50 years since the classic comedy first hit the screen.
Scales also portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett’s A matter of attribution – for which they have a BAFTA nomination in 1992
Later in life she enjoyed an unlikely hit Grand Channel Tourswho travels waterways in Britain and elsewhere with her late husband, fellow actor Timothy West.
Source: BBC
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