Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales, CBE, (22 June 1932), is a British actress best known for playing Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers. She is the mother of actor Samuel West.
Her career started in 1951 at the Bristol Old Vic as an assistant stage manager. Despite this, she wanted to be an actor. Her first break came in The '60s when she was cast in Marriage Lines alongside Richard Briers.
She has been (very) happily married to actor Timothy West since 1963. They are canal-sailing nerds and frequently go sailing on canal boats whenever they get a chance.
In 1975, she was cast as John Cleese's fearsome wife, Sybil Fawlty, in Fawlty Towers, playing the role in both series and in 2007 returned to the role for an episode of Children in Need.
After Fawlty, she made many appearances in films from The '70s to The '90s such as Escape from the Dark, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Boys from Brazil, The Wicked Lady, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Consuming Passions, A Chorus of Disapproval, Howards End, Wolf (Mike Nichols), An Awfully Big Adventure, and Stiff Upper Lips.
In 2014, it was publicly revealed that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which had been causing her severe memory loss. In 2020, it was announced that she would be retiring from acting due to the Alzheimer's, ending a career spanning 67 years.
Works on TV Tropes she appeared in:
Films- Room at the Top (1958) — Council Office Worker (Uncredited Role)
- The Boys from Brazil (1978) — Mrs. Harrington
- The Wicked Lady (1983) — Lady Kingsclere
- Howards End (1992) — Aunt Juley
- Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992) — Queen
- Wolf (1994) — Maude
- Breaking the Code (1996) — Sara Turing
- Johnny English (2003) — Elizabeth II
- Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011) — Great Aunt Greta
- Run for Your Wife (2012) — Woman at Pub
- Coronation Street, 5 episodes (1961) — Eileen Hughes
- Jackanory, 10 episodes (1970-80) — Storyteller
- Fawlty Towers, 12 episodes (1975-79) — Sybil Fawlty
- Bergerac, episode "Unlucky Dip" (1981) — Gloria Gibbins
- ScreenPlay, episode "Beyond the Pale" (1989) — Milly
- Screen One, episode "A Question of Attribution" (1991) — H.M.Q.
- The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends, episode "The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Jeremy Fisher" (1994) — Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
- Searching, 7 episodes (1995) — Mrs. S.M. Tilston
- Dalziel and Pascoe, episode "An Advancement of Learning" (1996) — Edith Disney
- Dennis the Menace, episode "Summer Holiday" (1998) — Mrs. Duffel
- The Big Knights, 13 episodes (1999-2000) — Queen Melissa
- Midsomer Murders, episode "Beyond the Grave" (2000) — Eleanor Bunsall
- Animated Tales of the World , episode "Ewenn Congar: A Story from France" (2001) — Narrator
- Silent Witness, 2 episodesshow list (2001) — Anne Parker
- CASUAL+Y, episode "Out with a Bang" (2004) — Jocelyn Anderson
- Children in Need, 1 episode (2007) — Sybil Fawlty
- Marple, episode "A Pocket Full of Rye" (2008) — Mrs. Mackenzie
