Prunella Scales
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Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales CBE (née Illingworth; 22 June 1932) was an English former actor, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy Fawlty Towers; for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in A Question of Attribution (Screen One, BBC 1991) by Alan Bennett (for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award); and for the documentary series Great Canal Journeys (2014–2021), in which she travels on canal barges and narrowboats with her husband, fellow actor Timothy West.
Known for
Credits
Wolf (1994)
as Maude Waggins
Howards End (1992)
as Aunt Juley
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
as Mrs. Harrington
Emma (1996)
as Miss Bates
Sub Rosa (2014)
as Madame
Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011)
as Great Aunt Greta
Room at the Top (1958)
as Council Office Worker (uncredited)
Hobson's Choice (1954)
as Vicky Hobson
Freddie As F.R.O.7. (1992)
as Queen (voice)
The Wicked Lady (1983)
as Lady Kingsclere
An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)
as Rose
Fair Game (1994)
as Marjorie
Second Best (1994)
as Margery
Consuming Passions (1988)
as Ethel
The Shell Seekers (2007)
as Dolly Keeling
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy (2005)
as Sybil Fawlty (archive footage) (uncredited)
A Chorus of Disapproval (1989)
as Hannah Ap Llewellyn
Natural Causes (1988)
as Celia Bryce
Dirty Beasts (1990)
as Narrator
Home Cooking (1986)
as Judith
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
as Glynis
Run For Your Wife (2012)
as Woman in Pub
Station Jim (2001)
as Queen Victoria
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1994)
as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (voice)
Bosses From Hell (1989)
Actor
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)
as Moira O'Neill
When We Are Married (1987)
as Annie Parker
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1982)
as Mistress Page
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened (2009)
as Self / Sybil Fawlty
What the Pythons Did Next... (2007)
as Self
Stiff Upper Lips (1998)
as Aunt Agnes
Breaking the Code (1996)
as Sara Turing
An Ideal Husband (1999)
as Lady Markby
The Phone Call (2013)
as Joan
Mad Cows (1999)
as Dr. Minny Stinkler
The Crowded Day (1954)
as Customer
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy (2014)
as Self
A Question of Attribution (1991)
as H.M.Q.
Revolting Rhymes (1990)
as Narrator
Waltz of the Toreadors (1962)
as Estella Fitzjohn
The Apple Cart (1975)
as Queen Jemima
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers (2025)
Actor
The Ghost of Greville Lodge (2000)
as Sarah
My Friend Walter (1992)
as Aunt Ellie
Lord of Misrule (1996)
as Shirley
Laxdale Hall (1953)
as Morag McLeod
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1990)
as Fleecy Flock
What the Butler Saw (1987)
as Mrs Prentice
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing (2006)
as Lady Moping
The Littlest Horse Thieves (1976)
as Mrs. Sandman
Fawlty Towers Revisited (2005)
as Herself
The Ring of Truth (1973)
as Babs Pickard
Doris and Doreen (1978)
as Doris Rutter
The Achurch Letters (1977)
as Florence Farr
Slimming Down (1984)
as Mrs. Shrigley
Think (2007)
as Customer
Communicators From Hell (1989)
Actor
Outside Edge (1982)
as Miriam
Absurd Person Singular (1985)
as Marion Brewster-Wright
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2002)
as Grace
What Every Woman Wants (1954)
as Mary
Singles (1983)
as Gail
An Audience with Alf Garnett (1997)
Actor
Beyond The Pale (1989)
as Milly