'Warm, funny and wise': tributes as Shirley Valentine star Pauline Collins dies at 85

The Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins has died aged 85, her family said yesterday.

- Nadeem Badshah

She died peacefully, and surrounded by her family, in a care home in Highgate, north London, having had Parkinson's disease for several years, they said.

Collins starred in the first series of the BBC sitcom The Liver Birds in 1969, then became a household name after getting a regular role in Upstairs, Downstairs in 1971. She married fellow actor John Alderton in 1969.

Her role in the 1989 film Shirley Valentine earned her an Oscar nomination and a Bafta for best actress.

Her family said in a statement: "Pauline was so many things to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her life. A bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen. Her illustrious career saw her play politicians, mothers and queens.

"She will always be remembered as the iconic, strong-willed, vivacious and wise Shirley Valentine - a role that she made all her own. We were familiar with all those parts of her because her magic was contained in each one of them.