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