Actor Timothy West, star of stage, film and television, dies aged 90 – The Irish Times

Actor Timothy West, whose career spanned Shakespeare, Ibsen and Pinter to TV shows Brass, EastEnders and Great Canal Journeys (with his wife Prunella Scales), has died aged 90.

His children, Juliet, Samuel and Joseph West, said in a statement: “After a long and extraordinary life on and off stage, our beloved father Timothy West died peacefully in his sleep last night. He was 90 years old.

“Tim was finally with his friends and family. 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. We will all miss him very much.

“We would like to thank the incredible NHS staff at St George hospital Tooting and Avery Wandsworth for their loving care in his final days.”

Hugely popular, with his stage presence and unpretentious personal demeanor, West toured the UK’s regional theaters with the same adventurous spirit as he traveled the waterways.

“I feel more useful when I’m on the road, traveling through this country and others, playing in different theaters, exploring different places, meeting different people,” he wrote in his witty 2001 memoir, A Moment Towards the End of the Game. “There’s no way to get rich or famous, and it drives my manager crazy, but I love it.”

Following the news of his death, many tributes were paid to the West. Author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth shared on Instagram: “Great guy; an amazing actor, husband, father, friend. On stage, on screen, on a canal boat, at the end of a pier (she loved the seaside pier!), in the garden with a glass of wine, she was simply the best. The great Timothy West has died at the age of 90: what a precious, full life.”

West starred in Uncle Vanya, Death of a Salesman, The Builder, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Macbeth, and King Lear four times. He also became known for his portrayals on stage and screen of real-life characters such as designer William Morris and conductor Thomas Beecham, as well as political figures such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. West’s films included The Day of the Coyote (1973) and Don’t Cry (1987).

The actor, who has appeared regularly on television since the 1960s, played the eponymous king in 1975’s Edward the Seventh, was a damsel in distress beekeeper in 1980’s Royal Jelly (one of Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected) and in adaptations of Charles took part. Dickens’ novels: Hard Times, Oliver Twist and Bleak House. Released in 1977, Hard Times was parodied in the 1983 TV series Brass, in which West played self-made northern businessman Bradley Hardacre. He was awarded the CBE in 1984.

Perhaps his greatest television success came with Grand Canal Cruises, a funny and touching series driven by his family’s passion for narrowboats. Starring West and Scales, the show was notable for exploring how the duo navigated Scales’ experiences with dementia. “He doesn’t remember things very well, but you don’t need to remember things on the channel,” he said. “You can enjoy things as they are, which is perfect for him.”

Paying tribute to West on Times Radio, broadcaster and Alzheimer’s campaigner Angela Rippon said his death was “a huge loss for everyone”.

“I think Timothy and Pru have done an incredible, wonderful job of convincing people that dementia is not something you should always be afraid of, but something you can embrace and live with and live with.”

West had a daughter, Juliet, with his first wife, Jacqueline Boyer. She and Scales had two sons, Samuel and Joseph. Samuel has appeared alongside his father on stage and screen many times.

Born in Bradford in 1934 to Lockwood West and Olive Carleton-Crowe, both actors, West’s early childhood was an itinerant one.

During the Second World War the family settled in Bristol, where West’s father joined the reserve war police, and West’s stage debut was opposite his parents in the police force’s 1943 panto. He was often truant and expelled from school, but regularly attended performances at the Little Theater in Bristol.

After directing an award-winning student production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town at Bristol, he left his job as a quality control engineer at EMI to become assistant stage manager at Wimbledon theater in London; He soon began appearing on stage with increasingly larger roles.

In the 1960s he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company and played Samuel Johnson in the Prospect theater company (opposite Julian Glover as James Boswell). He also played Prospero in The Tempest for Prospect.

On a later Prospect tour, he took on the roles of Bolingbroke in Shakespeare’s Richard II and Mortimer in Marlowe’s Edward II, with Ian McKellen playing both leading roles.

West played the 37-year-old Lear for the first time in Prospect. He held this role for the fourth time during the EU referendum in 2016; It was fitting for a play about “tearing up the map, letting the old guys make a disastrous decision and letting the young ones sort it out.” “it came out,” he said.

In 2013, West had a small role in Coronation Street, and in 2014 he played Stan Carter in EastEnders, a role he first played for over a year. His last TV credits included Gentleman Jack. – Guard