Prunella Scales, who passed away at 93 years old, was considered among Britain's most brilliant comic actors.
Despite a long and distinguished career on stage and screen, her legacy will forever be linked as the unforgettable Sybil Fawlty in the classic 1970s television series, the beloved Fawlty Towers.
It was Sybil's mission in life to keep tabs on her husband Basil described as a "stick insect" - portrayed by 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, in some cases, physically confronted by Basil when during his particularly frenzied episodes.
Her nightmarish laugh, extraordinary hairstyle and intense anger were part of a meticulously crafted persona that stands as a humorous triumph.
Although many actors would have removed themselves from too close an association with a single role, Scales always expressed her delight in having been part of the Fawlty Towers experience.
The actress born Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth was born near Guildford on June 22nd, 1932.
She belonged to a household profoundly passionate about the theatre - her mother being, Catherine Scales, a former actor who'd given it all up for family life.
Bright and bookish, after wartime evacuation to the Lake District, Prunella attended Moira House Girls School in Eastbourne.
During 1949, she earned a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School and - two years later - obtained a role as a stage management assistant.
This was to the fury of her previous school principal in her hometown, who had wished she would seek admission to Cambridge and sent correspondence to the theater to express this opinion.
At drama school, Scales was perceived as a developing character performer instead of an obvious Juliet.
"We all wanted to look like Audrey Hepburn," she subsequently informed her biographer, "but I wasn't attractive and nobody fancied me."
The youthful Prunella concealed her middle-class roots, conscious that directors were beginning to look for a new kind of earthy credibility in performers.
But she started picking up minor parts in plays, and, while rehearsing for a part at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing, she encountered Andrew Sachs, who would subsequently appear as Manuel the Spanish server, in Fawlty Towers.
Her initial television exposure occurred in the year 1952, as the character Lydia Bennet in a BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which included Peter Cushing - more famous for his horror film performances - as Mr. Darcy.
And her first big screen roles followed the next year - in lighthearted romance, Laxdale Hall, and David Lean's production Hobson's Choice, alongside Charles Laughton.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, she maintained constant employment - performing across multiple mediums, featuring a short appearance as transport worker, Eileen Hughes, in Coronation Street.
She also met fellow actor Timothy West.
After what Prunella described as "a mild Times crossword and Polo mints flirtation", they became a couple, and wed in 1963.
Her big TV break arrived through Marriage Lines, a BBC sitcom about recentlyweds, the Starling couple.
Scales performed alongside actor Richard Briers, at that time a major celebrity in TV humor. The program achieved great success and continued for five seasons.
Then came the legendary Fawlty Towers, which elevated her to cultural icon.
John Cleese and his spouse at the time, Connie Booth, had submitted the first script of Fawlty Towers to the BBC.
Performer Bridget Turner had been considered for Sybil Fawlty but she declined the part and Scales auditioned for the role.
She subsequently recalled that Cleese maintained high standards.
"John, appropriately, demanded strict script adherence, and failure to comply would understandably provoke his irritation."
Only 12 episodes were ultimately produced.
The first series, which aired in 1975, failed to win huge audiences but, as it continued, its comedic combination of ridiculous physical comedy and awkward circumstances grew in popularity.
Scales thought hard about portraying Sybil Fawlty, and decided that her social background had to be below her husband Basil's.
At first, the creators had doubts regarding this approach.
"Once they heard the first reading in rehearsal," recalled Scales, "they were sold on the idea."
Later in her career, she frequently found herself, requested to portray stern matriarchs when she desired more glamorous roles.
But when asked about her career pinnacle, Scales immediately identified in picking Sybil Fawlty.
"The role presented challenges," she insisted, "yet I remain proud of my work." She believed it helped get the paying public into theaters.
"I like to think that if the public have seen you in one thing they'll come and see you in another," she said.
After Fawlty Towers, Scales maintained her career in television, including an engagement as the frumpy Elizabeth Mapp in the series Mapp and Lucia.
Her voice was also regularly heard on audio broadcasts, notably the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, which later transitioned to TV, and the series Ladies of Letters, with actress Patricia Routledge, which became an intrinsic part of the program Woman's Hour.
Scales performed two significant royal characters; as Queen Elizabeth II in the television drama of Alan Bennett's work, and as Queen Victoria in a solo performance that she performed 400 times.
She once received a letter from one of Queen Elizabeth's security men who confessed that when Scales came on stage, he rose to his feet.
"The response was automatic," she clarified. "I was thrilled."
In 1995, she started appearing as Dotty Turnbull in television commercials for the retail chain Tesco - which paid her partly in vouchers.
The advertising series, 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 commercial campaign, when she supported an initiative to prevent neighborhood store closures in her area of London.
Among her most accomplished roles came in Breaking the Code, the movie concerning the Bletchley Park wartime codebreakers.
She portrays the mother of Alan Turing, who embodies a society that criminalized same-sex relationships, an attitude that eventually led to his death.
Beyond performance, {Scales was
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