The actress, who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for several years, died peacefully surrounded by loved ones, her family said in a statement. Collins was 85.
“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,” her family’s statement read, via the BBC. “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.”
Born in Exmouth on September 3, 1940, Collins trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, according to The Times. She rose to prominence in the 1970s as the domestic Sarah Moffat in Upstairs, Downstairs and its spinoff, Thomas & Sarah.
In 1989, she gained international acclaim for her performance in Shirley Valentine, a film adaptation of Willy Russell’s play. She had already won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role in the stage version.
The drama focused on a middle-aged, working-class housewife from Liverpool who found a new purpose after winning a vacation to Greece.
Collins earned a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role and an Academy Award nomination for her performance. That year, Jessica Tandy won the Oscar for another stage-to-screen adaptation, Driving Miss Daisy.
According to IMDb, her later roles included Harriet Smith in the late-1990s TV drama The Ambassador. She also appeared in the films You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) and Quartet (2012), starring alongside Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, and Billy Connolly in the latter. Her final film was 2017’s The Time of Their Lives, a road movie where she co-starred with Joan Collins and Franco Nero.