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Pauline Collins, best known for her performance in the film Shirley Valentine, has died at the eighty-five years old.

She died peacefully in her London care home, in the company of her family after battling Parkinson's disease for a number of years, according to her family.

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

Her praised acting won her the Golden Globe for outstanding actress along with a BAFTA award.

'Charming and Witty'

Her relatives said in a statement: "Pauline was so many things to so many people, portraying diverse characters in her career. 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 iconic, strong-willed, vivacious and wise Shirley Valentine - a role that she made all her own. We knew all those aspects of her personality because her charm was embedded in every single role."

They added she was their "devoted mother, our beloved grandmother and great-grandmother", and actor John Alderton's "eternal partner"

"Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was constantly supportive," they said, thanking her caregivers, who looked after her with "respect, empathy, and above all affection"

"She experienced a calmer departure. We ask that you recall her at the height of her powers; radiant and energetic; and give us the space and privacy to contemplate a life without her"

Stage Success

She initially performed the lead part of Shirley Valentine at the Vaudeville Theatre in the UK capital in 1988. She won that year's Olivier Award for outstanding actress.

The following year she reprised the role on the New York stage, where she earned several awards including a prestigious Tony award.

The movie adaptation was released later that year.

Her other films included 1991's City of Joy with Patrick Swayze, shot in Kolkata, which brought her wider recognition worldwide.

Born in Exmouth in 1940, Collins was raised near the city of Liverpool and started out her career as a educator.

Her love of the stage led her to take up acting on a side basis, and in 1957 she appeared briefly as a nurse in the Emergency Ward 10.

She featured in the film Secrets of a Windmill Girl in 1966, playing a fictional dancer in a London adult entertainment venue, the Windmill Theater.

Following several theater parts, she employed her regional dialect to land a role on the show The Liver Birds.

Her acting career that she encountered her spouse John Alderton. They married in 1969 and had a family of three, Nicholas, Kate, and Richard.

The couple performed together in a variety of screen projects, such as Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she played a maid in the acclaimed ITV program.