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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
June 22, 1932
Died
October 27, 2025
Place of Birth
Sutton Abinger, Surrey, England, UK
Also Known As
- Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales
- Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth
- پرونلا اسکیلز
Prunella Scales
1.0 Popularity
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 For
0.0
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025
8.0
Self
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
2014
8.8
Self
Great Canal Journeys
2014
5.0
Madame
Sub Rosa
2014
7.3
Joan
The Phone Call
2013
4.4
Woman in Pub
Run For Your Wife
2012
5.2
Great Aunt Greta
Horrid Henry: The Movie
2011
8.0
Self / Sybil Fawlty
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
6.9
Dolly Keeling
The Shell Seekers
2007
0.0
Self
What the Pythons Did Next...
2007
Credits
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025
0.0
50 Years of BBC Two Comedy
as Self
2014
8.0
Great Canal Journeys
as Self
2014
8.8
Sub Rosa
as Madame
2014
5.0
The Phone Call
as Joan
2013
7.3
Run For Your Wife
as Woman in Pub
2012
4.4
Horrid Henry: The Movie
as Great Aunt Greta
2011
5.2
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
as Self / Sybil Fawlty
2009
8.0
The Shell Seekers
as Dolly Keeling
2007
6.9
What the Pythons Did Next...
as Self
2007
0.0
Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
as Lady Moping
2006
0.0
Fawlty Towers Revisited
as Herself
2005
5.0
Agatha Christie's Marple
as Mrs Mackenzie
2004
7.8
The Royal
as Red Admiral
2003
7.6
Dickens
as Elizabeth Dickens
2002
0.0
🎬
A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg
as Grace
2002
0.0
🎬
Station Jim
as Queen Victoria
2001
7.0
The Ghost of Greville Lodge
2000
6.0
Mad Cows
as Dr. Minny Stinkler
1999
3.4
Loose Women
as Self
1999
3.2
An Ideal Husband
as Lady Markby
1999
6.4
Stiff Upper Lips
as Aunt Agnes
1998
5.2
Keeping Mum
as Marjorie
1997
0.0
An Audience with Alf Garnett
1997
0.0
Midsomer Murders
as Eleanor Bunsall
1997
7.5
Emma
as Miss Bates
1996
6.6
Breaking the Code
as Sara Turing
1996
5.1
🎬
Lord of Misrule
as Shirley
1996
0.0
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
as Mrs. Duffel
1996
6.2
Dalziel & Pascoe
1996
6.3
Silent Witness
as Anne Parker
1996
7.5
The World of Lee Evans
as Mother
1995
6.3
🎬
Look at the State We're In!
as Storyteller
1995
0.0
An Awfully Big Adventure
as Rose
1995
6.5
Signs and Wonders
as Elizabeth Palmore
1995
0.0
Second Best
as Margery
1994
6.7
Wolf
as Maude Waggins
1994
6.1
Fair Game
as Marjorie
1994
3.8
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher
as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (voice)
1994
0.0
The Rector's Wife
as Marjorie Richardson
1994
8.0
Freddie As F.R.O.7.
as Queen (voice)
1992
5.2
My Friend Walter
as Aunt Ellie
1992
0.0
Howards End
as Aunt Juley
1992
7.0
A Question of Attribution
as H.M.Q.
1991
6.6
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson
as Fleecy Flock
1990
0.0
Dirty Beasts
as Narrator
1990
0.0
Revolting Rhymes
as Narrator
1990
0.0
Beyond The Pale
as Milly
1989
0.0
A Chorus of Disapproval
as Hannah Ap Llewellyn
1989
5.3
Bosses From Hell
1989
0.0
Communicators From Hell
1989
0.0
🎬
Thompson
1988
1.0
Natural Causes
as Celia Bryce
1988
0.0
Consuming Passions
as Ethel
1988
8.0
After Henry
as Sarah France
1988
5.7
When We Are Married
as Annie Parker
1987
0.0
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
as Moira O'Neill
1987
6.5
What the Butler Saw
as Mrs Prentice
1987
1.0
Home Cooking
as Judith
1986
0.0
🎬
Unnatural Causes
as Judith
1986
5.5
Casualty
as Jocelyn Anderson
1986
6.1
🎬
Theatre Night
as Mrs. Prentice
1985
0.0
Mapp & Lucia
1985
6.0
Absurd Person Singular
as Marion Brewster-Wright
1985
8.0
Slimming Down
as Mrs. Shrigley
1984
0.0
The Wicked Lady
as Lady Kingsclere
1983
4.8
🎬
Singles
as Gail
1983
6.0
The Merry Wives of Windsor
as Mistress Page
1982
8.0
Outside Edge
as Miriam
1982
6.0
Bergerac
as Gloria Gibbins
1981
6.7
Never the Twain
as Susan Peel
1981
6.6
Doris and Doreen
as Doris Rutter
1978
6.0
The Boys from Brazil
as Mrs. Harrington
1978
6.7
The Hound of the Baskervilles
as Glynis
1978
4.3
An Audience with...
as Self
1978
5.3
Target
as Diana Blake
1977
6.3
The Achurch Letters
as Florence Farr
1977
0.0
Lucky Feller
1976
7.2
The Littlest Horse Thieves
as Mrs. Sandman
1976
6.8
Fawlty Towers
as Sybil Fawlty
1975
8.3
🎬
The Apple Cart
as Queen Jemima
1975
0.0
Playhouse
as Florence Farr
1974
7.0
Seven of One
1973
7.0
BBC Play of the Month
as Queen Jemima
1965
5.0
Thirty-Minute Theatre
as Marie
1965
3.4
Waltz of the Toreadors
as Estella Fitzjohn
1962
4.8
Marriage Lines
1961
5.5
Room at the Top
as Council Office Worker (uncredited)
1958
6.9
The Crowded Day
as Customer
1954
5.4
What Every Woman Wants
as Mary
1954
6.3
Hobson's Choice
as Vicky Hobson
1954
7.4
🎬
Laxdale Hall
as Morag McLeod
1953
6.0
Pride and Prejudice
as Lydia Bennet
1952
0.0