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The celebrated actress Pauline Collins, best known for her role in the movie Shirley Valentine, has died at the age of 85.

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

Collins will be best remembered for her depiction of disgruntled housewife Shirley in the director's acclaimed motion picture, adapted from the celebrated theatrical production by playwright Willy Russell.

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

'Sparkling Personality'

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 stage and screen. Her distinguished work saw her play politicians, mothers and queens."

"Her memory will endure as the legendary, determined, lively, and insightful Shirley Valentine - a part she completely owned. We knew all those aspects of her personality because her charm was embedded in each one of them."

The statement continued she was their "loving mum, our wonderful grandma and great-grandmother", and her husband John Alderton's "life-long love"

"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 could not have had a calmer departure. We ask that you recall her at the height of her powers; radiant and energetic; and give us the space and privacy to contemplate a life without her"

Broadway Role

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

The following year she reprised the role on the New York stage, where she earned several awards including a esteemed Tony Award.

The movie adaptation was launched shortly after.

Additional movie roles included the 1991 film City of Joy with actor Patrick Swayze, filmed in Calcutta, which brought her wider recognition globally.

A native of 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 side basis, and in 1957 she appeared briefly as a nurse in the Emergency Ward 10.

She featured in the film Secrets of a Windmill Girl in 1966, playing a fictional dancer in a London adult entertainment venue, the Windmill Theatre.

After a number of stage roles, she employed her regional dialect to secure a part on The Liver Birds.

It was through acting that she encountered her spouse John Alderton. They married in 1969 and had a family of three, Nicholas, Kate, and Richard.

Alderton and Collins starred alongside each other in a variety of screen projects, such as Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she played a maid in the acclaimed ITV program.