Her full name is Prunella Margaret Ramney Islingworth. She was born on June 22, 1922 in Sutton Abingers, County Surrey, England. Graduated from a prestigious boarding school for girls in Eastbourne. At seventeen, she entered the acting school at the Old Vic Theatre. She also studied in New York at Herbert Berghof’s studio. She took the stage name in honor of her mother, theatrical actress Catherine Scales. Her acting skills formed on the stage - playing a variety of roles, she thereby laid the foundation
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Her full name is Prunella Margaret Ramney Islingworth. She was born on June 22, 1922 in Sutton Abingers, County Surrey, England. Graduated from a prestigious boarding school for girls in Eastbourne. At seventeen, she entered the acting school at the Old Vic Theatre. She also studied in New York at Herbert Berghof’s studio. She took the stage name in honor of her mother, theatrical actress Catherine Scales. Her acting skills formed on the stage - playing a variety of roles, she thereby laid the foundation for her multifaceted talent. The actress made her professional debut in 1951 at the Royal Theatre in Bristol. Three years later, she played her first London performance “Impressario from Smyrna”, and at the end of 1955 she first appeared on the Broadway stage as Ermengarda in the play “Matchmaker” by Thornton Wilder.
Since 1952, she began acting in films and television. Her first notable role was Vicky Hobson, one of the daughters of the provincial shoemaker - the main character of the David Lean comedy Hobson's Choice (1954), played by the famous Charles Lawton. In 1963, she married theater and film actor Timothy West and subsequently gave birth to two sons, Samuel and Joe. The marriage between Scales and West continues to this day. Their eldest son Samuel followed in the footsteps of his parents, becoming an actor. The most important role in the career of the actress was played by television: in the early sixties she flashed in a small role in the most famous British TV series “Coronation Street”, and from 1963 to 1966 she starred in a pair with actor Richard Brears in a comedy production about newlyweds “Marriage Certificate”, which was widely popular among the audience. Her most successful television project was the series "Falty Towers" (1975-1979), staged on the script of John Cleese, who became famous in the comedy troupe "Monty Python". For several years, the actress appeared on the screen as the domineering and grumpy Sybil, the wife of the nervous and eccentric hotel manager Basil Fawlty, brilliantly played by Cleese. The Folty Towers, without exaggeration, became an event in the history of British television and made Scales a star. Among her other best-known television works are the play Doris and Doreen (1978) by playwright Alan Bennett, staged by the famous director Stephen Frears, the series Mapp and Lucia (1985-1986, dir. Donald McVinnie), in which she played alongside Geraldine McEvan and After Henry (1988-1992). Despite the fact that she was often perceived as a predominantly comedic actress, Scales, with impressive experience in many theater companies in the UK, confidently played a variety of roles. At the same time, on the big screen, she most often got supporting roles. She starred in such films as Guys from Brazil (1978, Franklin James Sheffner), The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn (1987, Jack Clayton), The Chorus of Disapproval (1988, directed by Michael Winner), A Very Big Adventure (1994, directed by Michael Newell), The Second Best (1994, directed by Chris Menges). In the famous melodrama of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant “Howards End” (1992), where she played Aunt Julie, along with her starred her eldest son Samuel West.
Like another English actress Judy Dench, Prunella Scales was well-suited to the role of monarchs: she played Elizabeth II in the political detective John Schlesinger “The Question of Competence” (1992) based on the play of Alan Bennett and Queen Victoria in the theater mono-play “Evenue with Queen Victoria”. In 1999, together with her husband Timothy West, she was engaged in the play “Birthday” based on the play by Harold Pinter. The actress continues to work in theater, film and television.
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