Prunella Margaret Rumney Illingworth CBE (born 22 June 1932) is an English actress.
She is probably best known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife Sybil in the British comedy Fawlty Towers.
She is also known for her award-nominated role as H.M.Q. in the British film A Question of Attribution.
She has had a long and distinguished career as an actress mostly in comic roles. Her early film roles included Pride and Prejudice and Hobson's Choice.
Her first career break came with the early 1960s sitcom, Marriage Lines starring opposite Richard Briers. She has had major roles in BBC Radio 4 sitcoms, most notably After Henry, Smelling of Roses and Ladies of Letters; on television she starred in the London Weekend Television/Channel 4 series Mapp & Lucia based on the bestselling novels by E. F. Benson. She played Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution. In 1973, Scales teamed up with BBC Television actor & comedian Ronnie Barker in the (original) award-winning one-off Meat, which aired as One Man's Meat and was part of a series called Seven of One, also for the BBC. Her film appearances also include The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) Stiff Upper Lips (1997) and Howard's End (1992). More recently she was seen in a series of Tesco supermarket commercials as a domineering mother, Dottie Turnbull, with Jane Horrocks as her long-suffering daughter.
Scales narrowly missed out on the role of "Eth" in The Glums, part of Take It From Here, written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden; the role went to June Whitfield.
She is married to the British actor Timothy West, and has two sons; their eldest is the actor and director; & syndicalist, Samuel West. In 2003, she appeared as Hilda, alias "she who must be obeyed", wife of Horace Rumpole in a series of four BBC Radio 4 plays, with her husband playing her fictional husband. Prunella Scales and Timothy West toured Australia at the same time in different productions. Scales appeared in a one-woman show called "An Evening with Queen Victoria".
Scales is a supporter of the Labour Party, and appeared on a Labour party political broadcast during the 2005 UK general election campaign. She is also a loyal supporter of the SOS Children's Villages charity.
Her authorised biography, Prunella, written by Teresa Ransom, was published by John Murray in 2005. She is also a patron of the Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham, United Kingdom. In 2005 she named the P&O cruise ship, Artemis. On 16 November 2007, Prunella Scales made an appearance during Children in Need, acting as Sybil Fawlty, the new manager who wants to take over Hotel Babylon.
Has two sons with husband Timothy; Sam and Joe
Mother of Samuel West
Has a step-daughter named Juliet West.
She was awarded the Patricia Rothermere Award at the 2001 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for her contributions to British Theatre.
British classical stage actress trained at both the Old Vic Theatre School in London and the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York.
Achieved her greatest success on TV as the nosy, shrewish wife Sybil Fawlty on the classic John Cleese comedy "Fawlty Towers."
She was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1992 for her services to drama while her husband Timothy West was awarded his C.B.E. in 1984.
In October of 2003, she became seriously ill and was taken to the hospital for emergency heart operation (angioplasty).
