British actor Timothy West, who played wartime leader Winston Churchill on three occasions and the classic titular Shakespeare roles of Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth, has died aged 90.
In a statement, his children said that West died “peacefully” in his sleep “with his friends and family at the end.”
“After a long and extraordinary life on and off the stage, our darling father Timothy West died peacefully in his sleep yesterday evening,” his children Juliet, Samuel and Joseph said.
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During his long career, West was a regular presence on stage and screen, his versatility allowing him to play a broad range of characters. He excelled as a leading actor in numerous Shakespeare productions while recurring roles in British television’s two most popular soap operas, Coronation Street and Eastenders, kept him in the public eye in later life.
West, who was born in the north England city of Bradford, made his London stage debut in 1959, before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s, where he earned his acting chops.
On television, he had roles in numerous adaptations of the Charles Dickens novels, including Hard Times, Oliver Twist and Bleak House.
Hard Times was parodied in ITV’s Brass from 1982 to 1984, in which he played a ruthless self-made businessman. He returned for a third series in 1990.
West also played Churchill three times, in 1979’s From Churchill and the Generals, The Last Bastion five years later and in Hiroshima in 1995.
He was married for 61 years to actress Prunella Scales, who was most famous for her role as Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s BBC comedy Fawlty Towers.
The couple’s long romance was showcased over 10 series of Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys between 2014 and 2021.
The program, which ostensibly was a love letter to narrowboats and the British countryside, was widely praised for the way it honestly depicted Scales’ slow deterioration with dementia.
West was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1984 for his services to drama.