The Gleneagles Hotel was a hotel in Torquay, Devon, England. The
41-bed establishment, which opened in the 1960s, was the inspiration
for Fawlty Towers, a British situation comedy first broadcast in the
mid-1970s. John Cleese, and his then wife Connie Booth, were inspired
to write the series after they had stayed at the hotel and witnessed
the eccentric behaviour of its owner, Donald Sinclair (who sold the
hotel in 1973). Later the hotel was managed by Best Western. In
February 2015 the hotel closed. It will be replaced by retirement
apartments.The Gleneagles was not originally built as a hotel but was
modified to become one. The hotel was first opened in 1963 and was
managed by Donald Sinclair. It was initially described as "upmarket"
because it advertised private bathrooms in every room. In the early
1970s, cast members of Monty Python's Flying Circus stayed at the
Gleneagles for a planned three weeks, while filming in Paignton. Due
to Sinclair's rudeness towards them, which included criticising Terry
Gilliam's "too American" table etiquette and tossing Eric Idle's
briefcase out of a window "in case it contained a bomb", the cast left
the hotel apart from John Cleese and his wife, Connie Booth. Cleese
described Sinclair as "the most marvellously rude man I've ever met"
and based his Basil Fawlty character on him when he and Booth created
Fawlty Towers five years later. Sinclair sold the Gleneagles in 1973.
For the rest of its existence, the hotel retained a reminder of
Sinclair's legacy: the 41 rooms all had names such as Coral or Mimosa.
This was introduced in the Sinclair era of Gleneagles.In August 2003,
developers submitted plans to demolish the hotel and build a block of
flats on the site, claiming the building was "unattractive with little
architectural merit". In October, Torbay Town Council rejected the
application, claiming that it would be against its rules of tourism.
In September 2006, Prunella Scales, who played Sybil Fawlty, was
"guest of honour" at the reopening of the hotel after a £1,000,000
makeover. The hotel was a part of the Best Western hotel chain. Gleneagles Hotel, Torquay Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter