Pauline Collins, the esteemed British actress remembered for her Oscar-nominated performance in “Shirley Valentine” and for her work on TV’s “Upstairs, Downstairs,” has died at 85.
THR reports the performer had battled Parkinson’s disease.
Collins earned a BAFTA nomination as cheeky maid Sarah on “Upstairs, Downstairs” (1971-1973). On the show, her character’s fling with a chauffeur was art imitating life — he was played by her husband John Alderton.
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The couple starred on the spin-off series “Thomas and Sarah” for a season in 1979.
Her most impactful work came as the titular British housewife of “Shirley Valentine,” playing a woman who abandons her boring life to take a soul-feeding trip to Greece.
She first acted in “Shirley Valentine” as a one-woman play in 1988, winning an Olivier Award. When the play transferred to Broadway the following year, she scooped up a Tony.
In-between her West End and Broadway runs, Collins shot the movie version, which was an international hit in 1989, and which led to her first and only Oscar nomination in 1990. (She lost the award to another actress bringing a play to life — Jessica Tandy in “Driving Miss Daisy.”)
Collins, born September 3, 1940, in Devon, England. She made her stage debut in 1962’s “A Gazelle in Park Lane,” and her film debut in “Secrets of a Windmill Girl” (1966).
Her first brush with “Doctor Who” came via a 1967 appearance, though she did not accept an offer to play that iconic character’s girlfriend. Nearly 40 years later, she returned for a spot on the series as Queen Victoria (2006).
Following her success on “Upstairs, Downstairs,” she appeared with her husband on “No, Honestly” (1974-1975), “Wodehouse Playhouse” (1975-1976), “Little Miss” (1983), “Forever Green” (1989-1992), in the feature film “Mrs. Caldicot’s Cabbage War” (2002), and on the stage.
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Among her many films were the Holocaust drama “My Mother’s Courage” (1995) and the 2017 road-trip comedy “Time of Their Lives” with Joan Collins.
Collins was awarded an OBE in 2001.
She is survived by her husband of 56 years and four children, among them actress Kate Alderton.
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