Timothy Lancaster West (20 October 1934 – 12 November 2024) was an English actor with a long and varied career across theatre, film, and television.

He began acting in repertory theatres in the 1950s before making his London stage debut in 1959 moving on to three seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1960s.

During his life, West played King Lear (four times) and Macbeth (twice) along with other notable roles in The Master Builder and Uncle Vanya.

[5] West worked as an office furniture salesman and as a recording technician before becoming an assistant stage manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956.

[6] West played repertory seasons in Newquay, Hull, Northampton, Worthing and Salisbury before making his London debut at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1959 in the farce Caught Napping.

His father, Lockwood West, also portrayed King Edward VII in 1972 in an episode of the LWT television drama series Upstairs, Downstairs.

Other screen appearances included Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), The Day of the Jackal (1973), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), Masada (1981), Cry Freedom (1987) and Luc Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).

[8] West starred as patriarch Bradley Hardacre in Granada TV's satirical Northern super-soap Brass over three seasons (1982–1990).

In 2011, he appeared alongside John Simm and Jim Broadbent in the BBC series Exile, written by BAFTA-winning Danny Brocklehurst.

[8] His final acting role was in the penultimate episode of the BBC daytime series Doctors, which was screened the day after his death.

[12] West was artistic director of the Forum Theatre, Billingham, in 1973,[13] where he directed We Bombed in New Haven by Joseph Heller, The Oz Obscenity Trial by David Livingstone and The National Health by Peter Nichols.

[26] After a fall, West's health declined throughout his final months, and he died at a care home in Wandsworth on 12 November 2024, aged 90.

[8] In 1959, he wrote and produced a short audio play, This Gun That I Have in My Right Hand Is Loaded, satirising typical mistakes of radio drama, including over-explanatory dialogue and misuse of sound cues.