The death of the great British actor Timothy West at the age of 90 deprives the country of one of its most versatile and interesting talents. He had a remarkable career that began in old-school repertory theatre in the 1950s and went on to encompass film, radio, stage and the medium that he was perhaps best known for, television.
In fact, news of his death reaches us on the day that he made his final small-screen appearance, in the penultimate episode of the BBC’s Doctors.
He was well known in the profession as one of Britain’s friendliest and warmest actors – and his 60-year marriage to Prunella Scales was one of show business’s most durable. Their relationship became very public and very poignant after it was announced that she was suffering from vascular dementia.
West was capable of playing everyone from blustering authority figures to flawed and self-questioning kings, whether Shakespearean or real-life, and of doing it all with the same commitment. It is difficult to pick ten of his greatest roles, given how many memorable and rich performances he offered. But here is a selection for the ages.
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
While the world is currently gripped by the Eddie Redmayne-Lashana Lynch ‘reimagining’ of Frederick Forsyth’s gripping bestseller, some have quietly pointed out that the 1973 film adaptation, directed by Fred Zinnemann, was not only far closer to the book but, at 142 minutes, a masterclass in economy.
West had one of his earliest film roles in the picture, along with other British character actors including Derek Jacobi, Ronald Pickup and Donald Sinden, playing the police commissioner who launches the international manhunt for the eponymous assassin. It’s not a large part, but West delivers one of the film’s most memorable lines when he says, of the Jackal’s anonymity, “Without a name, all other proposals are meaningless. The first task, then, is to find it.”