Prunella Scales
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
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
Howards End (1992)
as Aunt Juley
Emma (1996)
as Miss Bates
Wolf (1994)
as Maude Waggins
Second Best (1994)
as Margery
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
as Mrs. Harrington
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1982)
as Mistress Page
Sub Rosa (2014)
as Madame
Fair Game (1994)
as Marjorie
Hobson's Choice (1954)
as Vicky Hobson
Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011)
as Great Aunt Greta
The Wicked Lady (1983)
as Lady Kingsclere
The Shell Seekers (2007)
as Dolly Keeling
Station Jim (2001)
as Queen Victoria
An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)
as Rose
Room at the Top (1958)
as Council Office Worker (uncredited)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
as Glynis
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy (2005)
as Sybil Fawlty (archive footage) (uncredited)
Mad Cows (1999)
as Dr. Minny Stinkler
Freddie As F.R.O.7. (1992)
as Queen (voice)
Consuming Passions (1988)
as Ethel
Home Cooking (1986)
as Judith
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)
as Moira O'Neill
The Phone Call (2013)
as Joan
Dirty Beasts (1990)
as Narrator
Breaking the Code (1996)
as Sara Turing
A Chorus of Disapproval (1989)
as Hannah Ap Llewellyn
An Ideal Husband (1999)
as Lady Markby
The Littlest Horse Thieves (1976)
as Mrs. Sandman
Run For Your Wife (2012)
as Woman in Pub
Lord of Misrule (1996)
as Shirley
A Question of Attribution (1991)
as H.M.Q.
Waltz of the Toreadors (1962)
as Estella Fitzjohn
What the Pythons Did Next... (2007)
as Self
Natural Causes (1988)
as Celia Bryce
When We Are Married (1987)
as Annie Parker
Bosses From Hell (1989)
Actor
The Apple Cart (1975)
as Queen Jemima
Communicators From Hell (1989)
Actor
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1990)
as Fleecy Flock
The Crowded Day (1954)
as Customer
What Every Woman Wants (1954)
as Mary
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers (2025)
Actor
Doris and Doreen (1978)
as Doris Rutter
The Ghost of Greville Lodge (2000)
as Sarah
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy (2014)
as Self
Laxdale Hall (1953)
as Morag McLeod
Stiff Upper Lips (1998)
as Aunt Agnes
Outside Edge (1982)
as Miriam
Absurd Person Singular (1985)
as Marion Brewster-Wright
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened (2009)
as Self / Sybil Fawlty
My Friend Walter (1992)
as Aunt Ellie
A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg (2002)
as Grace
Slimming Down (1984)
as Mrs. Shrigley
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing (2006)
as Lady Moping
Fawlty Towers Revisited (2005)
as Herself
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1994)
as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (voice)
The Achurch Letters (1977)
as Florence Farr
Revolting Rhymes (1990)
as Narrator
Beyond The Pale (1989)
as Milly
The Ring of Truth (1973)
as Babs Pickard
An Audience with Alf Garnett (1997)
Actor
Singles (1983)
as Gail
What the Butler Saw (1987)
as Mrs Prentice
Think (2007)
as Customer