🔗 Share this article

Pauline Collins, widely recognized for her role in the movie Shirley Valentine, has died at the eighty-five years old.

Her passing was peaceful in her London residence, in the company of her loved ones after living with Parkinson's for a number of years, according to her family.

Collins will be best remembered for her portrayal of disgruntled housewife Shirley in Lewis Gilbert's acclaimed film, adapted from the celebrated stage play by playwright Willy Russell.

Her praised acting also earned her the Golden Globe Award for best actress as well as a BAFTA award.

'Witty Presence'

Her relatives released a statement saying: "Pauline was so many things to countless individuals, playing a variety of roles in her life. An intelligent, lively, and humorous figure on stage and screen. Her illustrious career saw her play politicians, mothers and queens."

"She will always be remembered 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 charm was embedded in each one of them."

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

"Kind, humorous, giving, considerate, intelligent, she was always there for us," they expressed, appreciating her caregivers, who cared for her with "respect, empathy, and above all affection"

"She could not have had a calmer departure. We ask that you recall her at the peak of her career; so joyful and full of energy; and allow us privacy to reflect on life in her absence"

Stage Success

Collins first played the title role of Shirley Valentine at the Vaudeville Theater in the UK capital in 1988. She won that year's Olivier Award for best actress.

A year later she reprised the role 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.

Additional movie roles included 1991's City of Joy with Patrick Swayze, shot in Kolkata, which brought her wider recognition worldwide.

A native of Exmouth in 1940, Collins was raised near the city of Liverpool and started out her career as a educator.

Her passion for theater inspired her to pursue acting on a part-time basis, and in 1957 she appeared briefly as a nurse in the Emergency Ward 10.

She starred in the film Secrets of a Windmill Girl in 1966, playing a fictional dancer in a London striptease nightclub, the Windmill Theater.

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

Her acting career that she encountered her spouse John Alderton. They wed in 1969 and had a family of three, Nicholas, Kate, and Richard.

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