Prunella Scales
Known for: Acting
Born: June 21, 1932 in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK - Died: October 26, 2025
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
Showing 24 of 97 titles
Wolf
Maude Waggins
The Shell Seekers
Dolly Keeling
Emma
Miss Bates
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
Moira O'Neill
Waltz of the Toreadors
Estella Fitzjohn
Hobson's Choice
Vicky Hobson
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
Lady Moping
Breaking the Code
Sara Turing
A Question of Attribution
H.M.Q.
Stiff Upper Lips
Aunt Agnes
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
Queen (voice)
A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg
Grace
A Chorus of Disapproval
Hannah Ap Llewellyn
Consuming Passions
Ethel
What the Butler Saw
Mrs Prentice
Fawlty Towers Revisited
Herself
An Ideal Husband
Lady Markby
Second Best
Margery
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
Self
Dirty Beasts
Narrator
Revolting Rhymes
Narrator
The Wicked Lady
Lady Kingsclere
Run For Your Wife
Woman in Pub
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
Self / Sybil Fawlty