Timothy West, who was born in Bradford, dies aged 90

His children Juliet, Samuel, and Joseph West said in a statement issued by his agent: “After a long and extraordinary life on and off the stage, our darling father Timothy West died peacefully in his sleep yesterday evening. He was 90 years old.

“Tim was with friends and family at the end. He leaves his wife Prunella Scales, to whom he was married for 61 years, a sister, a daughter, two sons, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

"All of us will miss him terribly.

Timothy West and Prunella Scales (Image: Ian West/PA) “We would like to thank the incredible NHS staff at St George’s Hospital, Tooting and at Avery Wandsworth for their loving care during his last days.”

West was born in Bradford in 1934, while his father was appearing at the former Prince's Theatre.

His parents, actors Lockwood West and Olive Carleton-Crowe, were members of a troupe of actors which had arrived in Bradford with a touring production when their son was born at a nursing home in Manningham Lane.

"Bit of a cheek, really, calling myself Bradford-born," West grinned as he spoke to the Telegraph & Argus in 1999.

He spent a long time trying to trace the exact location of his birth, pinning it down eventually, with the help of local researchers, to the Manningham Nursing Home. He was disappointed to discover that it had been pulled down many years previously.

He had an honorary degree from the University of Bradford, along with Scales, and was an honoured visitor to the National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television - now the National Science and Media Museum. 

West established himself as one of Britain's best-loved and most versatile actors and was awarded a CBE for his services to drama in the 1984 Queen's Birthday Honours List. 

Over the years. he starred in television shows such as comedy drama Brass, sitcom Not Going Out and soaps Coronation Street and EastEnders.

Timothy West and Prunella Scales pictured in May this year (Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire) During his career West also played former British prime minister Winston Churchill three times, in From Churchill and the Generals (1979), The Last Bastion (1984), and Hiroshima (1995).

In 2019, he played Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes, a recreation of three missing episodes of the BBC comedy Dad’s Army.

His film roles included Commissioner Berthier in The Day Of The Jackal (1973), King Francis in From Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998), and Nazi physician and war criminal Karl Gebhardt in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973).

On stage, he was a regular performer of Shakespeare.

Speaking when he became a patron of Stage 84 in Idle, West said:  “I should be very happy to become a patron of your school being full of praise for what I have seen as a result of your training."

Timothy West as King Lear during a photocall for the new English Touring Theatre production of William Shakespeare's King Lear at The Old Vic, central London (Image: PA) Earlier this year, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Yorkshire Society.

In the 1999 interview with the T&A, ahead of him playing Goldberg in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, he touched on his and his wife's twin passions of canals and railways.

West and Scales, 92, who played Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, appeared in the documentary series Great Canal Journeys between 2014 and 2021, which saw them travelling on narrowboats together.

"We're both interested in the restoration of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, and we've taken our boat up to the Leeds and Liverpool many times, through Saltaire and the Five Rise Locks," he said. 

"Railways I love, too. I still go by train whenever I can and I'm involved with a number of restored lines. I shall travel on the Keighley and Worth Valley while I'm in the area."