Timothy West, the English star of stage and screen known for memorable turns in U.K. soaps “Coronation Street” and “EastEnders,” died on Tuesday. He was 90.
His children released a statement on Wednesday confirming the news. They said that West died “peacefully in his sleep” and was “with friends and family at the end.”
Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England on Oct. 20, 1934, West went on to have a long career on stage and screen. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for three seasons in the ’60s, and throughout his life frequently played the leading roles in “Macbeth,” “Uncle Vanya” and “King Lear.”
His first big screen role came in 1975 with the TV series “Edward the Seventh,” in which he portrayed the titular king from the age of 23 until his death. From 1983 to 1990, he starred as patriarch Bradley Hardacre in the comedy drama “Brass,” and also appeared in the 1985 Agatha Christie series “Miss Marple” and the 1986 black comedy show “A Very Peculiar Practice.” West also featured in several films, including Richard Attenborough’s Apartheid drama “Cry Freedom” (1987), Luc Besson’s “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” (1999) and Richard Eyre’s biographical drama “Iris” (2001).
Going into the 2000s, West ventured more into TV, playing Geoffrey Adams on the BBC One sitcom “Not Going Out” from 2007 to 2009 and joining ITV soap “Coronation Street” in 20133 as Eric Babbage, a love interest of Sue Johnston’s character Gloria Price. The next year, he appeared in another soap, “EastEnders,” as Stan Carter, the father of Shirley (Linda Henry) and Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White).
From 2014 to 2019, he hosted a Channel 4 series, “Great Canal Journeys,” alongside his wife and fellow actor Prunella Scales. The show followed the pair as they took narrowboat journeys around the U.K. and Europe. More recently, he played Jeremy Lister, an American Revolution-era British officer, in historical drama series “Gentlemen Jack” from 2019 to 2022.
West is survived by Scales, to whom he was married for 61 years, as well as his sister Patricia, daughter Juliet, sons Samuel (who is also an actor) and Joseph, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
