Tom Conti pays tribute to 'phenomenal' co-star

ACTRESS Pauline Collins was a “phenomenal” talent who “just leapt out of the screen at us; her friend and fellow actor Tom Conti has said.

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Collins, whose role in the 1989 film Shirley Valentine earned her an Oscar nomination, died this week at the age of 85.

She starred in the first series of The Liver Birds but did not become a household name until a role in Upstairs Downstairs in 1971.

More recently she starred in Dustin Hoffman’s 2012 comedy Quartet alongside Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Tom Courtenay and Sir Billy Connolly.