🔗 Share this article

The celebrated actress Pauline Collins, best known for her performance in the film Shirley Valentine, has passed away at the age of 85.

Her passing was peaceful in her London care home, in the company of her loved ones after living with Parkinson's disease for several years, as stated by her family.

Her legacy will be defined for her depiction of unhappy homemaker Shirley in the director's award-winning motion picture, adapted from the celebrated stage play by playwright Willy Russell.

Her critically acclaimed performance also earned her the Golden Globe Award for outstanding actress as well as a BAFTA award.

'Charming and Witty'

Her relatives said in a statement: "She was a multifaceted person to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her career. An intelligent, lively, and humorous figure on stage and screen. Her distinguished work saw her play politicians, mothers and queens."

"Her memory will endure as the legendary, determined, lively, and insightful Shirley Valentine - a part she completely owned. We knew all those aspects of her personality because her charm was embedded in each one of them."

They added she was their "devoted mother, our beloved grandmother and great-grandma", and actor John Alderton's "eternal partner"

"Kind, humorous, giving, considerate, intelligent, she was constantly supportive," they expressed, appreciating her carers, who cared for her with "dignity, compassion, and most of all love"

"She experienced a calmer departure. We hope you will remember her at the height of her powers; radiant and energetic; and allow us privacy to contemplate a life without her"

Stage Success

Collins first played the lead part of Shirley Valentine at the Vaudeville Theater in London in 1988. She received that year's Olivier Award for best actress.

The following year she reprised the role on Broadway, New York, where she picked up numerous prizes including a esteemed Tony Award.

The movie adaptation was released later that year.

Her other films included 1991's City of Joy with actor Patrick Swayze, shot in Kolkata, which gained her international fame worldwide.

A native of Exmouth in 1940, she grew up near the city of Liverpool and began her professional life as a educator.

Her love of the stage led her to take up acting on a side basis, and in 1957 she appeared briefly as a medical attendant in the Emergency Ward 10.

She starred in the film Secrets of a Windmill Girl in 1966, playing a fictional dancer in a London adult entertainment venue, the Windmill Theatre.

Following several theater parts, she employed her regional dialect to land a role on the show The Liver Birds.

It was through acting that she met her husband John Alderton. They wed in 1969 and had three children, their sons and daughter.

Alderton and Collins starred together in a number of television and film roles, such as Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she played a maid in the acclaimed ITV program.