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The celebrated actress Pauline Collins, best known for her role in the movie Shirley Valentine, has died at the age of 85.

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

Collins will be best remembered for her portrayal of unhappy homemaker Shirley in the director's acclaimed film, adapted from the celebrated theatrical production by Willy Russell.

Her critically acclaimed performance won her the Golden Globe Award for outstanding actress as well as a Bafta.

'Witty Presence'

Collins' family said in a statement: "She was a multifaceted person to countless individuals, playing a variety of roles in her life. An intelligent, lively, and humorous figure on stage and screen. Her illustrious career saw her play politicians, mothers and queens."

"Her memory will endure as the iconic, strong-willed, vivacious and wise Shirley Valentine - a part she completely owned. We were familiar with all those parts of her because her charm was embedded in every single role."

They added she was their "loving mum, our beloved grandmother and great-grandma", and actor John Alderton's "life-long love"

"Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was always there for us," they expressed, thanking her carers, who cared for her with "respect, empathy, and above all affection"

"She experienced a more peaceful goodbye. We ask that you recall her at the height of her powers; radiant and energetic; and allow us privacy to contemplate a life without her"

Stage Success

Collins first played the lead part of Shirley Valentine at the Vaudeville Theatre in the UK capital in 1988. She received that year's Olivier Award for best actress.

The following year she reprised the role on the New York stage, where she picked up numerous prizes including a prestigious Tony award.

The movie adaptation was released later that year.

Additional movie roles included 1991's City of Joy with Patrick Swayze, shot in Kolkata, which gained her international fame globally.

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 TV series Emergency Ward 10.

She starred in the film Secrets of a Windmill Girl in 1966, playing a fictional dancer in a London striptease nightclub, the Windmill Theater.

Following several theater parts, she used her Liverpool accent to land a role on the show The Liver Birds.

Her acting career that she met her husband John Alderton. They wed in 1969 and had a family of three, their sons and daughter.

Alderton and Collins starred together in a number of television and film roles, such as Upstairs, Downstairs, in which she portrayed a servant in the acclaimed ITV program.