Prunella Scales

Born

6/22/1932

Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK

Prunella Scales

Biography

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 For43 Movies

Wolf
1994
★6.1
The Boys from Brazil
1978
★6.7
Howards End
1992
★7.0
Emma
1996
★6.6
Sub Rosa
2014
★5.0
Hobson's Choice
1954
★7.4
Horrid Henry: The Movie
2011
★5.2
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
1992
★5.2
Room at the Top
1958
★6.9
Second Best
1994
★6.8
Consuming Passions
1988
★8.3
The Wicked Lady
1983
★4.9
An Awfully Big Adventure
1995
★6.5
Fair Game
1994
★4.8
Natural Causes
1988
★8.0
A Chorus of Disapproval
1989
★5.4
Run For Your Wife
2012
★4.4
An Ideal Husband
1999
★6.5
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1978
★4.4
The Shell Seekers
2007
★6.9
The Phone Call
2013
★7.3
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987
★6.6
When We Are Married
1987
★7.0
Station Jim
2001
★7.5
The Merry Wives of Windsor
1982
★8.0
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
★8.4
Mad Cows
1999
★4.4
Breaking the Code
1996
★5.6
Stiff Upper Lips
1998
★5.6
A Question of Attribution
1991
★6.8
Doris and Doreen
1978
★6.5
Waltz of the Toreadors
1962
★5.0
The Crowded Day
1954
★5.8
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
2014
★8.0
Fawlty Towers Revisited
2005
★7.5
My Friend Walter
1992
★7.0
The Littlest Horse Thieves
1976
★6.9
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
2000
★7.0
What the Butler Saw
1987
★3.0
Absurd Person Singular
1985
★8.3
What Every Woman Wants
1954
★6.6
Outside Edge
1982
★8.0
Beyond The Pale
1989
★7.0