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Pauline Collins, best known for her role in the film Shirley Valentine, has passed away at the eighty-five years old.

Her passing was peaceful in her London residence, surrounded by her family after battling Parkinson's disease for several years, according to her family.

Collins will be best remembered for her portrayal of unhappy homemaker Shirley in Lewis Gilbert's award-winning motion picture, based on the celebrated stage play by playwright Willy Russell.

Her praised acting also earned her the Golden Globe Award for best actress as well as a Bafta.

'Witty Presence'

Her relatives 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 aspects of her personality because her magic was contained in each one of them."

The statement continued she was their "devoted mother, our wonderful grandma and great-grandmother", and actor John Alderton's "eternal partner"

"Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was constantly supportive," they expressed, thanking her carers, who looked after her with "respect, empathy, and above all affection"

"She experienced a calmer departure. We ask that you recall her at the height of her powers; radiant and energetic; and allow us privacy to reflect on life in her absence"

Stage Success

She initially performed the title role of Shirley Valentine at the Vaudeville Theater in London in 1988. She received that year's Olivier award for best actress.

The following year she returned to the character on the New York stage, where she picked up numerous prizes including a esteemed Tony Award.

The movie adaptation was released later that year.

Her other films 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 started out her career as a educator.

Her passion for theater inspired her to pursue acting on a part-time basis, and in 1957 she had a cameo role 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 striptease nightclub, the Windmill Theater.

Following several theater parts, she employed her regional dialect to land a role on the show The Liver Birds.

Her acting career that she encountered her spouse John Alderton. They wed in 1969 and had a family of three, Nicholas, Kate, and Richard.

Alderton and Collins starred together in a variety of screen projects, such as the series Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she portrayed a servant in the acclaimed ITV program.