LEGEND LOST
EastEnders legend and husband of Fawlty Towers star Timothy West ‘died months after suffering fall on path near home’
An inquest heard about the actor's sad decline
EASTENDERS legend Timothy West died months after he suffered a fall on a footpath near his family home, an inquest heard.
The actor, married to Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales for more than 60 years, also had roles in Coronation Street and Brass.
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West died aged 90 on November 12 last year while receiving palliative care at Wandsworth Common Care Home.
An inquest heard he had suffered a fall in August that year that left him with a significant traumatic brain injury.
Strangers found the stricken actor lying on a footpath near his home in Wandsworth, South West London.
West was treated in hospital for three months before he was moved to the care home on November 5.
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He was left struggling to swallow food and liquids and suffered four bouts of pneumonia.
Staff hoped he would be able to return home but he was too unwell after his condition declined.
The home's general manager, Thomas Holden, told the court: "On 12 November 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 19:20."
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The inquest was told no one witnessed West's fall so it was "not possible to determine" how it happened and if others were involved.
Assistant coroner Ellie Oakley said: "He was treated in hospital for around three months before being discharged to a care home on 5 November 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 12 November 2024."
West was best known for his roles in Coronation Street as Eric Babbage and in EastEnders as Stan Carter.
He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Macbeth twice and King Lear four times.
Timothy was friends with Queen Camilla and attended her wedding to the future King Charles with Prunella in 2005.
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His children Juliet, Samuel and Joseph West announced his death last year, saying: "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."
Prunella was diagnosed with vascular dementia, a form of the disease caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, in 2014.
The couple then filmed Great Canal Journeys, a Channel 4 series celebrating their love of narrow boating.
Timothy described her condition in his memoir Pru and Me.
He revealed he had consulted the couple's GP about her memory a year before her diagnosis - but had been told not to worry.
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Speaking to the BBC soon after the couple's diamond wedding anniversary in 2023, he said: "Somehow we have coped with it and Pru doesn't really think about it."
In 1984, West was appointed a CBE for his services to drama in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
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