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The celebrated actress Pauline Collins, best known for her performance in the film Shirley Valentine, has died at the eighty-five years old.

Her passing was peaceful in her London care home, in the company of her family after battling Parkinson's for several years, according to her relatives.

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

Her praised acting also earned her the Golden Globe for outstanding actress along with a Bafta.

'Charming and Witty'

Collins' family said in a statement: "Pauline was so many things to so many people, 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 knew all those parts of her because her charm was embedded in every single role."

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

"Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was always there for us," they expressed, appreciating her carers, who looked after her with "respect, empathy, and above all affection"

"She experienced a more peaceful goodbye. We hope you will remember her at the peak of her career; radiant and energetic; and give us the space and privacy to contemplate a life without her"

Stage Success

Collins first played the lead part of Shirley Valentine at the Vaudeville Theatre in the UK capital in 1988. She won that year's Olivier award for outstanding actress.

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

The movie adaptation was released later that year.

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

Born in Exmouth in 1940, she grew up near Liverpool and began her professional life as a educator.

Her love of the stage 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 adult entertainment venue, the Windmill Theatre.

Following several theater parts, she used her Liverpool accent to land a role on The Liver Birds.

It was through acting that she met her husband John Alderton. They married in 1969 and had three children, Nicholas, Kate, and Richard.

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