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

She died peacefully in her London care home, surrounded by her family after living with Parkinson's disease for a number of years, according to her relatives.

Collins will be best remembered for her depiction of unhappy homemaker Shirley in Lewis Gilbert's acclaimed motion picture, adapted from the acclaimed stage play by playwright Willy Russell.

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

'Sparkling Personality'

Her relatives released a statement saying: "She was a multifaceted person to so many people, portraying diverse characters in her life. An intelligent, lively, and humorous figure on theater and film. Her distinguished work saw her play politicians, mothers and queens."

"Her memory will endure 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."

They added she was their "loving mum, our wonderful grandma and great-grandmother", and actor John Alderton's "eternal partner"

"Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was always there for us," they expressed, thanking her caregivers, who cared for her with "dignity, compassion, and most of all love"

"She could not have had a calmer departure. We hope you will remember her at the peak of her career; so joyful and full of energy; and allow us privacy to contemplate a life without her"

Stage Success

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.

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

The film of the same name was released later that year.

Additional movie roles included the 1991 film City of Joy with Patrick Swayze, shot in Kolkata, which gained her international fame worldwide.

A native of Exmouth in 1940, she grew up near Liverpool and started out her career as a educator.

Her love of the stage inspired her to pursue acting on a side basis, and in 1957 she had a cameo role as a nurse in the TV series 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 Theatre.

After a number of stage roles, she employed her regional dialect to land a role on the show The Liver Birds.

It was through acting that she encountered her spouse John Alderton. They married in 1969 and had a family of three, their sons and daughter.

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.