2012 interview with the Guardian<\/a>, Collins said the opportunity felt \u201clike a prison sentence\u201d. \u201cMaybe it would have given me a profile early in my career but then I would have missed so many things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nHer TV credits also include the UK\u2019s first medical soap, Emergency Ward 10. There followed one series of No, Honestly, in which she and Alderton played a married couple.<\/p>\n
In 2005, Collins starred as Miss Flite in the BBC\u2019s adaptation of Bleak House. In 2013 she appeared in Quartet, Dustin Hoffman\u2019s directing debut, playing a former opera singer diagnosed with dementia.<\/p>\n
On being offered the role, Collins told the Guardian at the time: \u201cSurprises. That\u2019s what I love about this business. Even at my age you can get surprises. I thought he [Hoffman] doesn\u2019t even know me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins\u2019s film credits include City of Joy alongside Patrick Swayze, Paradise Road and Mrs Caldicot\u2019s Cabbage War, in which she appeared alongside her husband.<\/p>\n
Pauline Collins with Patrick Swayze in the 1992 film City of Joy. Photograph: Moviestore\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Alderton said: \u201cPauline 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat 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 \u2018look at me\u2019. It\u2019s no wonder that she was voted the nation\u2019s sweetheart in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell T Davies, who worked with the actor on the 2006 Doctor Who episode Tooth and Claw, wrote on Instagram: \u201cIt was such an honour to have her on set, I was in awe \u2026 Oh she was salty and wonderful, and the finest of actors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for Shirley Valentine, as writer Matthew Todd says today: \u2018Says more about UK life at that time than any history book ever could.\u2019 A true star. And she\u2019d laugh at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actor James Dreyfus wrote on X: \u201cHad the enormous pleasure to briefly, but memorably, share the screen with this remarkable actress. RIP Pauline Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n
The author Morris Bright wrote on X: \u201cI\u2019ve led a little life & even that will be over pretty soon. I\u2019ve allowed myself to lead this little life when inside me there was much more. She couldn\u2019t have given us more. Shirley Valentine star Pauline Collins has died at 85. Thoughts with husband of 55yrs John Alderton.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins has died aged 85, her family has announced. She died peacefully, surrounded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-266420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}