Prunella Scales, who died at the age of 93, was regarded as one of Britain's finest comedic performers.
Despite a long and distinguished career on stage and screen, her legacy will forever be linked as the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the 1970s TV comedy, the beloved Fawlty Towers.
It was Sybil's mission in life to closely monitor her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - played by comedian John Cleese - between cigarette-fuelled phone conversations with her companion Audrey.
It fell to her to placate guests who had been shouted at, totally ignored or, occasionally, throttled by Basil when in one of his more manic moods.
Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were components of a meticulously crafted persona that ranks as a humorous triumph.
And while many actors would have distanced themselves from too close an association with one particular character, Scales always expressed her pleasure in participating of the Fawlty Towers experience.
Formative Years and Professional Start
The actress born Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth came into the world near Guildford on June 22nd, 1932.
She belonged to a household profoundly passionate about theatrical arts - her mother being, Catherine Scales, an ex-actress who'd abandoned her career for marriage and children.
Intelligent and studious, after wartime evacuation to the Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House educational institution in Eastbourne.
During 1949, she earned a scholarship to the prestigious Old Vic drama school and - two years later - obtained a role as an assistant stage manager.
This was to the fury of her former headmistress in her hometown, who had wished she would seek admission to Cambridge University and wrote to the theatre to express this opinion.
At drama school, Scales had been thought of as a junior character actor rather than an obvious Juliet.
"Everyone aspired to resemble Audrey Hepburn," she subsequently informed her biographer, "however I lacked conventional beauty and attracted no admirers."
Young Prunella also hid her middle-class roots, conscious that producers started seeking a new kind of earthy credibility in their actors.
Nevertheless she began acquiring minor parts in theatrical productions, and, during preparations for a role at Worthing's Connaught Theatre, she met Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel, the Spanish waiter, in the famous series.
There was an early television appearance in 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which featured actor Peter Cushing - more famous for his horror film performances - as Mr Darcy.
Her initial film appearances followed the next year - in romantic comedy, the film Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's Hobson's Choice, alongside Charles Laughton.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was rarely out of work - appearing on stage, film and television, featuring a brief stint as a bus conductor, Eileen Hughes, in Coronation Street.
She also met fellow actor Timothy West.
Following what she characterized as "a gentle courtship involving crosswords and candies", they got together, and wed in 1963.
Career Milestones and Defining Characters
Her big TV break arrived through Marriage Lines, a comedy program about a newly married couple, George and Kate Starling.
Scales performed alongside Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in TV humor. The show proved hugely popular and ran for five years.
Then came Fawlty Towers, which elevated her to cultural icon.
John Cleese and his spouse at the time, Connie Booth, had presented the initial screenplay of Fawlty Towers to the broadcasting corporation.
Actress Bridget Turner had been approached to play Sybil Fawlty but she had turned it down and Scales auditioned for the role.
She subsequently recalled that Cleese maintained high standards.
"John, quite rightly, was extremely rigorous about learning the script, and if you didn't, he could get quite cross, which was fair enough."
Merely twelve installments were ever made.
The initial season, which debuted in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its hilarious mix of absurd pratfalls and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.
Scales carefully considered about portraying Sybil Fawlty, and determined that her social background had to be inferior to Basil's social standing.
At first, John Cleese and his wife had doubts regarding this approach.
"After witnessing the initial read-through," recalled Scales, "they embraced the concept completely."
Later in her career, she was, all too often, called upon to play stern matriarchs when she hankered after elegant characters.
But when asked about her career pinnacle, Scales immediately identified in selecting Sybil Fawlty.
"It was a tough job," she insisted, "but I'm still proud of it." She even thought it assisted in bringing audience members into performance venues.
"I like to think that if the public have seen you in one thing they'll come and see you in another," she expressed.
Subsequent Work and Private World
After Fawlty Towers, Scales continued to work in television, comprising an engagement as character Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.
Her vocal talents were frequently featured on audio broadcasts, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which later transitioned to TV, and Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of Woman's Hour.
Scales performed at two major royal roles; as Queen Elizabeth II in the BBC production of Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution, and as Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she presented four hundred times.
She obtained correspondence from a royal protection officer who admitted that when Scales appeared, he rose to his feet.
"The response was automatic," she clarified. "The experience delighted me."
During 1995, she began starring as Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for supermarket giant Tesco - which compensated her partially with shopping credits.
The campaign, which continued for nine years, was identified as the biggest factor in propelling it to market leadership in the mid-nineties.
Scales later came in for some gentle criticism for taking part in the Tesco adverts, when she backed a campaign to prevent neighborhood store closures in her London community.
Among her most accomplished roles came in the production Breaking the Code, the movie concerning the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.
She appears as Alan Turing's mother, who embodies a society that treated homosexual acts as a crime, a perspective that contributed to his tragic end.
Away from acting, {Scales was
