🔗 Share this article

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

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

Collins will be best remembered for her depiction of unhappy homemaker Shirley in the director's acclaimed film, based on the celebrated theatrical production by playwright Willy Russell.

Her critically acclaimed performance also earned her the Golden Globe for best actress along with a Bafta.

'Charming and Witty'

Her relatives said in a statement: "Pauline was so many things to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her career. An intelligent, lively, and humorous figure on theater and film. Her illustrious career saw her portray leaders, parents, and royalty."

"Her memory will endure as the legendary, determined, lively, and insightful Shirley Valentine - a role that she made all her own. We were familiar with all those parts of her because her magic was contained in every single role."

They added she was their "loving mum, our beloved grandmother and great-grandmother", and her husband John Alderton's "eternal partner"

"Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was constantly supportive," they said, thanking her caregivers, who looked after her with "respect, empathy, and above all affection"

"She could not have had a more peaceful goodbye. We ask that you recall her at the peak of her career; so joyful and full of energy; and give us the space and privacy to contemplate a life without her"

Stage Success

She initially performed the lead part of Shirley Valentine at the Vaudeville Theatre in the UK capital in 1988. She received that year's Olivier award for best actress.

The following year she returned to the character on the New York stage, where she picked up numerous prizes including a esteemed Tony Award.

The film of the same name was launched shortly after.

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

Born in Exmouth in 1940, Collins was raised 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 part-time basis, and in 1957 she appeared briefly as a nurse in the TV series Emergency Ward 10.

She featured in the film Secrets of a Windmill Girl in 1966, portraying an imaginary performer in a London striptease nightclub, the Windmill Theatre.

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

Her acting career that she met her husband John Alderton. They married in 1969 and had a family of three, their sons and daughter.

The couple performed alongside each other in a variety of screen projects, such as Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she played a maid in ITV's popular series.