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