Pauline Collins, Oscar-nominated British star of ‘Shirley Valentine,’ dies at 85

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Pauline Collins, the British actress known for her Oscar-nominated role in “Shirley Valentine” as a bored housewife, has passed away at the age of 85.

Dame Eileen Collins passed away peacefully this week at her home in north London after a several-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, her family announced Thursday. They described her as a versatile woman who lived a full and varied life, taking on many roles.

The family remembered the actor, who started his career in the 1960s, as a lively, clever, and funny performer on stage and in movies.

In the 1989 film “Shirley Valentine,” directed by Lewis Gilbert, Pauline Collins played a clever but unhappy housewife who takes her friend’s invitation to travel to Greece, hoping to rediscover excitement in her life. The character, Shirley, famously proclaims, “Sex for breakfast, sex for dinner, sex for tea and sex for supper,” expressing her newfound liberation.

Entertainment & Arts

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For actress Pauline Collins, “Shirley Valentine” wasn’t simply a celebration of women finding themselves and learning to love themselves. It was also an opportunity to push back against how older women are typically portrayed in movies, and she even filmed a nude scene as part of that effort.

In 1989, Joan Collins told The Times she regretted not being younger and slimmer. However, she added that if she had looked like Jamie Lee Curtis, she wouldn’t have been suitable for the role she played.

Shirley Valentine, featuring Tom Conti as her love interest and Alison Steadman as a friend, earned Pauline Collins her only Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The film also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, with Patti Austin performing “The Girl Who Used to Be Me,” a song written by Marvin Hamlisch and the songwriting team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Before starring in the film, Collins first played Shirley Valentine on stage in London, a role she created for Willy Russell’s play. This success led to her Broadway debut in 1989, where she won a Tony Award for Best Actress. She also received Olivier and BAFTA awards for her performances in both the stage play and the film version.

Television

Prunella Scales, best known for her role as Sybil in the beloved British comedy ‘Fawlty Towers,’ has passed away at the age of 93 after a long battle with dementia.

Besides her famous role in “Shirley Valentine,” Alison Steadman (credited as ‘Collins’ in some works) had a long and successful career on television, appearing in shows like “Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Forever Green,” “The Ambassador,” “Mount Pleasant,” and “Dickensian.” She also starred in films such as “City of Joy,” “Paradise Road,” and “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” sharing the screen with notable actors including Patrick Swayze, Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, and Anthony Hopkins.

Throughout her long career in film and television, Collins remained active on stage, appearing in plays like “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Woman in Mind,” and “Cinderella.”

Born in 1940, Joanne Collins grew up near Liverpool with parents who were both educators – her mother was a teacher and her father a headmaster. In a 1989 interview with The Times, she described her father as being “one of the early feminists.”

He raised three daughters and made sure they had the same opportunities as boys, like a good education. My parents shared all the household responsibilities equally – they both worked and took care of everything, from cooking to laundry. My father even hand-washed diapers, which was really something.

Movies

Most women over 40, especially those with curves, wouldn’t be thrilled about publicly exposing themselves by jumping into the ocean on camera.

Her marriage to John Alderton, whom she worked with on “Upstairs, Downstairs,” followed a similar pattern. She remembered that he took care of the house for five months while she performed on Broadway.

I was so saddened to hear about Joan Collins. As Alderton said, and it really struck me, her greatest role wasn’t on screen – it was as his wife and the mother of his children. It’s a beautiful way to remember her, focusing on the love and family she built.

Though Joan Collins often portrayed glamorous, seaside vacations in Greece on television, she actually favored a different getaway spot in real life: St. Petersburg, Florida.

She found it amusing that people assumed being alone meant she was off having a romantic encounter. In reality, she was taking a solo trip to Disney World, and wondered what that said about others’ assumptions about her, she told The Times.

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2025-11-07 01:01