British actor Pauline Collins, who earned an Oscar nomination for her flip because the stuck-in-a-rut housewife of “Shirley Valentine,” has died. She was 85.
Collins’ household stated in a press release Thursday that the actor died peacefully this week at her care dwelling in north London after dwelling with Parkinson’s illness for a number of years. Within the assertion, her household stated Collins “was so many issues to so many individuals, enjoying quite a lot of roles in her life.”
“A brilliant, sparky, witty presence on stage and display,” the household described the versatile actor, whose profession started within the Nineteen Sixties.
Collins was nicely into her 40s when she starred in “Shirley Valentine,” a witty however disgruntled homemaker who accepts a girlfriend’s supply to journey to Greece to deliver much-needed spice again to her life. “Intercourse for breakfast, intercourse for dinner, intercourse for tea and intercourse for supper,” Shirley proudly declares within the 1989 movie, directed by Lewis Gilbert.
For Collins, “Shirley Valentine” was extra than simply an ode to womanhood, self-love and self-discovery. It was additionally an opportunity to problem the conventions of getting old in leisure, together with by capturing a nude scene for the movie.
“My solely sorrow was that I wasn’t youthful and thinner,” a 49-year-old Collins instructed The Instances in 1989. “But when I had been Jamie Lee Curtis, I wouldn’t have been proper for the half.”
“Shirley Valentine,” which additionally starred Tom Conti as her on-screen Greek lover and Alison Steadman as her pal, led Collins to obtain her sole Academy Award nomination, a nod within the main actress class. The movie additionally acquired an unique track Oscar nomination for Patti Austin’s “The Lady Who Used to Be Me,” written by Marvin Hamlisch and husband-wife lyricist duo Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
Two years earlier than the movie’s premiere, Collins originated the function of Shirley Valentine in London for Willy Russell’s one-woman play of the identical identify. That led to her Broadway debut in 1989 and a Tony Award for greatest actress in a play the identical yr. She additionally gained accolades for the play on the Laurence Olivier Awards and a BAFTA for her work within the movie adaptation.
Past “Shirley Valentine,” Collins was additionally recognized for showing in dozens of TV sequence together with “Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Endlessly Inexperienced,” “The Ambassador,” “Mount Nice” and “Dickensian.” She additionally appeared in movies together with “Metropolis of Pleasure,” “Paradise Highway” and “You Will Meet a Tall Darkish Stranger,” counting Patrick Swayze, Glenn Shut, Frances McDormand, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins amongst her co-stars.
All through her decades-long display profession, Collins additionally continued her work in theater, together with productions of “The Significance of Being Earnest,” “Lady in Thoughts” and “Cinderella.”
Collins, born in 1940, was raised close to Liverpool by a schoolteacher mom and a headmaster father. She instructed The Instances in 1989 that her dad “was one of many early feminists.”
“He had three daughters and at all times supplied us every little thing {that a} boy would have — training and stuff,” she stated. “[My parents] had a very shared home state of affairs, they each labored, cooked, did the washing. He even washed nappies [diapers] by hand.”
Her marriage to “Upstairs, Downstairs” co-star John Alderton — they married in 1969 — was not too completely different. “He simply spent 5 months holding down the fort at dwelling whereas I used to be on Broadway,” she recalled.
Alderton, 84, stated Thursday that Collins’ “biggest efficiency was as my spouse and mom to our stunning kids.”
Whereas Collins was recognized for her scenic and romantic on-screen trip to the Greek coast, she most well-liked a unique type of vacation spot off-screen: St. Petersburg, Fla.
“It’s superb, individuals assume once you’re by yourself you’re going off to have fantastic sexual adventures. Right here I’m, by myself, going off to Disney World,” she instructed The Instances. “What does that say about me?”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
