The Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins has died aged 85, her family has announced.
She died peacefully, surrounded by her family, in her care home in Highgate, north London, having had Parkinson’s disease for several years, they said.
Collins starred in the first series of the BBC sitcom The Liver Birds but did not become a household name until landing a regular role in Upstairs, Downstairs in 1971. She married her fellow actor John Alderton in 1969. Her role in the 1989 film Shirley Valentine earned her an Oscar nomination and a Bafta for best actress.
Her family said on Thursday: “Pauline was so many things to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her life. A bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen. Her illustrious career saw her play politicians, mothers and queens.
Pauline Collins with Maggie Smith in the 2012 film Quartet. Photograph: Moviestore/Shutterstock
“She will always be remembered as the iconic, strong-willed, vivacious and wise 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 each one of them.
“More than anything, though, she was our loving mum, our wonderful grandma and great-grandma. Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was always there for us. And she was John’s [Alderton’s] lifelong love. A partner, work collaborator and wife of 56 years.
“We particularly want to thank her carers: angels who looked after her with dignity, compassion and, most of all, love. She could not have had a more peaceful goodbye. We hope you will remember her at the height of her powers; so joyful and full of energy; and give us the space and privacy to contemplate a life without her.”
Collins had taken the role of Shirley Valentine in the stage version in London’s West End and New York’s Broadway before appearing in the film adaptation alongside Tom Conti.
Pauline Collins with her husband, John Alderton, in 1973 in an episode of Upstairs, Downstairs. Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock
Born in Exmouth, Devon, in 1940, Collins was raised near Liverpool and started out as a teacher. She switched to acting and after appearing as Samantha Briggs in Doctor Who in 1967 she was offered another 39 episodes but turned them down.
In a 2012 interview with the Guardian, Collins said the opportunity felt “like a prison sentence”. “Maybe it would have given me a profile early in my career but then I would have missed so many things,” she said.
Her TV credits also include the UK’s first medical soap, Emergency Ward 10. There followed one series of No, Honestly, in which she and Alderton played a married couple.
In 2005, Collins starred as Miss Flite in the BBC’s adaptation of Bleak House. In 2013 she appeared in Quartet, Dustin Hoffman’s directing debut, playing a former opera singer diagnosed with dementia.
On being offered the role, Collins told the Guardian at the time: “Surprises. That’s what I love about this business. Even at my age you can get surprises. I thought he [Hoffman] doesn’t even know me.”
Collins’s film credits include City of Joy alongside Patrick Swayze, Paradise Road and Mrs Caldicot’s Cabbage War, in which she appeared alongside her husband.
Pauline Collins with Patrick Swayze in the 1992 film City of Joy. Photograph: Moviestore/Shutterstock
Alderton said: “Pauline Collins was a remarkable star. I had the great good fortune to have worked with her more than any other actor in our many TV series, films and West End stage shows together and watched her genius at close quarters.
“What I saw was not only her brilliant range of diverse characters but her magic of bringing out the best in all of the people she worked with. She wanted everyone to be special and she did this by never saying ‘look at me’. It’s no wonder that she was voted the nation’s sweetheart in the 1970s.
“She will always be remembered for Shirley Valentine, not only for her Oscar nomination or the film itself, but for clean-sweeping all seven awards when she portrayed her on Broadway in the stage play, in which she played every character herself. But her greatest performance was as my wife and mother to our beautiful children.”
Dame Joanna Lumley, who acted alongside Collins in Shirley Valentine, also paid tribute to the “unforgettable” actor.
She said: “We only shared one afternoon, filming a scene for Shirley Valentine, but in that short time I could see at once why she became a blazing star.
“The blend of truthfulness and soulful naivety with impeccable comic timing and mischief made her unforgettable.”
Russell T Davies, who worked with the actor on the 2006 Doctor Who episode Tooth and Claw, wrote on Instagram: “It was such an honour to have her on set, I was in awe … Oh she was salty and wonderful, and the finest of actors.
“As for Shirley Valentine, as writer Matthew Todd says today: ‘Says more about UK life at that time than any history book ever could.’ A true star. And she’d laugh at that.”
The actor James Dreyfus wrote on X: “Had the enormous pleasure to briefly, but memorably, share the screen with this remarkable actress. RIP Pauline Collins.”
The author Morris Bright wrote on X: “I’ve led a little life & even that will be over pretty soon. I’ve allowed myself to lead this little life when inside me there was much more. She couldn’t have given us more. Shirley Valentine star Pauline Collins has died at 85. Thoughts with husband of 55yrs John Alderton.”
