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