Timothy West’s final act of generosity has been revealed, with the actor leaving thousands of his fortune to a variety of charities after his death.
The star, who was married to Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales for over 60 years and appeared in soaps Coronation Street and EastEnders, died peacefully with his family around him at a care home in November aged 90.
Now newly-released documents have shown he left £15,000 to The Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council, a fundraising organisation which supports UK stage charities.
West also put £10,000 aside for each of the Bristol Old Vic and Threatre Royal Trust, Southwark Cathedral, arts charity Snipe Charitable Trust and aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres UK.
Another £5,000 of his £109,892 estate, reduced from £221,425 after deductions, went to the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.
The Brass actor left a further £20,000 to his sister Patricia Anne West in the will which was initially drawn up in 2020 while he was living at Wandsworth Common, London.
Scales, who played Sybil, the wife of rude hotel owner Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, received the remainder of the estate – a sum of £29,892.
An amendment to the will in March 2024 stated: ‘I declare jointly with my wife Pru we are giving to our son Sam the sum of £300,000 to aid the renovation of his home.’
Timothy West’s final act of generosity has been revealed, with the actor leaving thousands of his fortune to different charities after his death
The star was married to Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales, pictured together in 2023, for over 60 years and appeared in soaps Coronation Street and EastEnders
The pair’s 58-year-old son is also an actor, as well a narrator and theatre director.
West had another son, Joseph, with Scales and a daughter, Juliet, with his ex-wife, actress Jacqueline Boyer.
The Not Going Out actor had been admitted to the care facility to receive palliative care following a three-month stay in hospital following a fall, a May inquest heard.
His family announced last November that he had died aged 90 with his friends and family around him, some of whom attended a hearing into his death at Westminster Coroner’s Court on Thursday by videolink.
Assistant coroner Ellie Oakley said: ‘Timothy West had an unwitnessed fall near his home on August 11, 2024, which resulted in a significant traumatic brain injury.
‘It is not possible to determine how the fall happened and there is no evidence of others being involved.
‘He was treated in hospital for around three months before being discharged to a care home on November 5, 2024, for palliative care.
‘Unfortunately he was not well enough to be discharged to his home despite receiving appropriate care in the care home. He died on November 12, 2024.’
West, pictured on the set of Gentleman Jack in 2018, died ‘peacefully with his family around him’ at a care home where he was receiving palliative care after a three-month stay in hospital following a fall
The star was in TV shows such as comedy drama Brass and sitcom Not Going Out (pictured: West and Scales in 2024)
His family announced last November that he had died aged 90 with his friends and family around him, some of whom attended a hearing into his death at Westminster Coroner’s Court on Thursday by videolink (pictured in 2016)
The coroner addressed the family and close friends who viewed proceedings online at the conclusion of the inquest, telling them: ‘I would like to end by passing on my sincerest condolences to Mr West’s family and friends for this tragic loss of their loved one.’
West had been living at Wandsworth Common Care Home in the days leading up to his death.
The home’s general manager, Thomas Holden, said in a statement read out at Thursday’s inquest: ‘On November 12 his family were with him all day.
‘They continued to stay with him in his room during the evening and he passed away peacefully with his family around him at 7.20pm.’
Mr Holden said West was admitted with a view to trying to rehabilitate him enough so that he could go home ‘as he wished to spend his last days there’ but that there was a ‘slow decline’ in his health over the days he resided there.
The actor was admitted to hospital in August last year after a fall near his home.
Members of the public came across him unconscious on a footpath near Wandsworth Common, the inquest heard, and an ambulance crew attended and took him to St George’s Hospital in Tooting after a neurological assessment.
He remained in hospital for around three months during which time the actor’s loved ones eventually decided to prioritise his ‘comfort and dignity’ and arranged for him to be discharged to the private care home.
Scales received the remainder of the estate – a sum of £29,892 – with £60,000 going to charity
West pictured with his son Samuel West, who is also an actor, in October 2010. An amendment to the will granted £300,000 for Samuel’s home renovations
His wife who played Sybil, the wife of rude hotel owner Basil Fawlty in classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers
The medical cause of death was given as a subdural haematoma and extra-axial haemorrhage, with a traumatic brain injury and non-convulsive status epilepticus, aspiration pneumonia and hypertension as contributing factors.
In a statement announcing his death last year, West’s 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.’
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.
The couple married in 1963 and had two sons, Samuel and Joseph.
Scales was sadly diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014 and was forced to quit Great Canal Journeys due to her ailing health.
In an interview with The Daily Mail in 2023, West revealed the heartache of seeing his wife, who he cared for during their six-decade marriage, slip away amid her health battle.
West pictured with his wife in the play The External
Scales and West performing together in the When We Were Married play in Whitehall Theatre in 1986
West plays the role of Edward VII in 1975. Newly-released documents have shown he left £15,000 to The Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council
West as Reverend Cottrell in Agatha Christie’s Poirot in 2010. He also put £10,000 aside for each of the Bristol Old Vic and Threatre Royal Trust, Southwark Cathedral, arts charity Snipe Charitable Trust and aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres UK
Despite being diagnosed in 2014, the signs of her dementia were there long before.
West revealed in his book that the actress had kept slipping her lines during a 2003 production of Oscar Wilde’s A Woman Of No Importance at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End.
In an interview with the BBC last year, West said he recalled every word of that life-changing moment when the doctor finally diagnosed her condition: ‘We went to see a specialist who said, “Sorry this is just something which happens to you when you are older and it’s not going to get any easier, but you can cope with it. Don’t let it get you down.”
West was also married to actor Jacqueline Boyer from 1956 to 1961, and they had a daughter, Juliet.
In Brass the Bradford-born actor played ruthless self-made businessman Bradley Hardacre from 1982 to 1984 before returning for a third series in 1990, while in Not Going Out he played Geoffrey, the father of Lucy Adams, played by Sally Bretton.
He appeared as Eric Babbage in seven episodes of Coronation Street in 2013, and in EastEnders he played Stan Carter from 2014 to 2015.
Scales with her husband West at the Cafe Pelican London in 1985
West and his son Samuel performing in Henry IV at the Old Vic Theatre in 1997
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, playing Lear in 2016 and 2002.
In 1984, West was appointed a CBE for his services to drama in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Before acting, he attended the John Lyon School and Bristol Grammar School, and worked as an office furniture salesman and a recording technician before becoming an assistant stage manager at Wimbledon Theatre in 1956.
