Timothy West: Veteran actor who will be remembered for commitment to his family
The actor was a familiar face in the 1960s and early 1970s but became a household name when he starred in Edward The Seventh.
Timothy West was a veteran of stage and screen, but he will be remembered for his unfailing commitment to his wife Prunella Scales.
West died “peacefully in his sleep” at the age of 90 on Tuesday, his children said in a statement.
The actor was a familiar face in the 1960s and early 1970s but became a household name when he starred in Edward The Seventh, a historical drama series, as the elder Edward VII, with his real-life sons Samuel and Joseph playing the character’s sons in the 1975 series.
West went on to star in television shows such as comedy drama Brass, sitcom Not Going Out and soaps Coronation Street and EastEnders, while he made several guest appearances in dramas including Midsomer Murders, Miss Marple, Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Lewis.
Born in Bradford on October 20 1934, West moved around a lot as a child and went to school in Harrow and Bristol.
The son of actor Lockwood West, West worked as an office furniture salesman and as a recording engineer, before ending up in theatre as an assistant stage manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956.
He played seasons in repertory roles across the country, from Newquay to Hull, before he came to the Piccadilly Theatre in the comedy Caught Napping in 1959.
West was married to actress Jacqueline Boyer from 1956 to 1961 and they had a daughter, Juliet.
But it was in 1961, while making She Died Young – a BBC play – that West met his eventual wife of six decades Scales.
West married Scales in 1963 and the couple had two sons, with elder son Samuel following him into acting and directing.
In 1984, West was appointed CBE for his services to drama and continued to act until 2019, when he played Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes.
Insights into West and Scales’ married life were shown in their Channel 4 series Great Canal Journeys, but West has also shared more heartfelt details.
During an appearance on Loose Women last year, West said when he and Scales were not filming scenes for She Died Young, they would spend their time off playing crosswords and writing letters to each other.
“Pru and I had certain amounts of time off,” West said.
“We spent a lot of time doing crosswords and writing letters to each other. This is something that has gone on all our lives.”
West was devoted to his wife and did not shy away from opening up about Scales’ Alzheimer’s diagnosis, which was announced in 2014.
He told Piers Morgan’s Life Stories in 2014: “The sad thing is that you just watch the gradual disappearance of the person that you knew and loved and were very close to.
“When we’ve been to a concert, or a play, or a film, there’s nothing very much we can say about it afterwards because Pru will have a fairly hazy memory.”
West and Scales, 92, appeared together in 10 series of Great Canal Journeys from 2014 until Scales’ Alzheimer’s reportedly progressed to the point where they had to stop in 2020.
Last year, West told Saga Exceptional that he missed his wife’s companionship as she continued to live with dementia.
He said: “Now that her condition has worsened, I miss Pru’s companionship as my best friend.”
West said that “a lot of time” was spent reassuring his wife about where she is.
He added: “Pru doesn’t have much awareness of time so when she joins me in the living room, her face lights up as if we’ve been apart for days.
“The look on her face makes me realise how much I love her.”
His love of the great outdoors shone through in his show with Scales, but also in their roles as patrons of the Avon Navigation Trust, the charity that runs the River Avon from Stratford-upon-Avon to Tewkesbury.
West was also a patron of the National Piers Society, a charity which preserves and promotes the UK’s seaside piers.
Despite his fame, West was always down to earth, and in 2011 told The Yorkshire Post he prefers to be called Tim than Timothy.
He said: “Call me Tim, unless you’re cross with me.”
West was the president of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda) for 31 years until 2018, when he was succeeded by Benedict Cumberbatch.
The Coronation Street star and Scales lived between their narrowboat and family house in Wandsworth, south London, until West sold the home they had lived in for more than 50 years in 2019.
In a statement released on Wednesday, his children Juliet, Samuel and Joseph said: “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 greatgrandchildren. All of us will miss him terribly.”
