Pauline Collins was actress ‘of phenomenal skill,’ says Tom Conti

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.

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

She starred in the first series of sitcom The Liver Birds but did not become a household name until getting a regular 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.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast on Friday, Conti, who starred with Collins in Shirley Valentine, said she possessed “star quality”.

He said: “She started with Upstairs Downstairs, that’s where she comes into the public consciousness, and she was just phenomenal in that, she just leapt out of the screen at us.

“Also in Quartet, which she did a few years ago – again, just a kind of searing reality to the character. She was phenomenal.

“She was an absolute delight to work with, because there were no airs and graces to Pauline. She just got on with it and was friendly to everyone.”

Conti said her acting appeared effortless, adding: “The secret of acting is not acting. She was brilliant for that.

“She just talked. And then you believe absolutely everything that she said. You believe completely, because you weren’t watching an actress, you were watching a person – that’s phenomenal skill.”

Collins’s family said she died “peacefully at her care home in Highgate this week, having endured Parkinson’s for several years”.

Actor Martin Jarvis, who worked with Collins on several films, said he felt “devastating sadness” at her death.

“Working with her on her very first movie, Secrets Of The Windmill Girls, I realised then that not only was she a superb actress but also a witty and generous human being,” he said in a statement.

“I loved directing her in the audio drama Forever Mine – set in heaven, in which she was, typically, both hilarious and moving, all at the same time.

“Because of her extraordinary performances on screen, and in the memories all who knew her personally, she will never be forgotten.”

Collins played the lead character of bored Liverpudlian housewife Shirley Valentine in the film of the same name.

She had first played the role in the 1988 West End production at the Vaudeville Theatre, winning an Olivier Award for best actress.

She married fellow actor John Alderton in 1969.

Alderton said: “Pauline Collins was a remarkable star. I had the great good fortune to have worked with her more than any other actor in our many TV series, films and West End stage shows together, and watched her genius at close quarters.

“What I saw was not only her brilliant range of diverse characters but her magic of bringing out the best in all of the people she worked with. She wanted everyone to be special and she did this by never saying ‘Look at me’. It’s no wonder that she was voted the nation’s sweetheart in the 1970s.

“She will always be remembered for Shirley Valentine, not only for her Oscar nomination or the film itself, but for clean-sweeping all seven awards when she portrayed her on Broadway in the stage play, in which she played every character herself.

“But her greatest performance was as my wife and mother to our beautiful children.”

Dame Joanna Lumley, who acted alongside Collins in Shirley Valentine, also paid tribute to the “unforgettable” actress.

She said: “We only shared one afternoon, filming a scene for Shirley Valentine, but in that short time I could see at once why she became a blazing star.

“The blend of truthfulness and soulful naivety with impeccable comic timing and mischief made her unforgettable.”

Born in Exmouth in 1940, Collins was raised near Liverpool and began her career as a teacher.

After taking up acting part-time, she landed her first television role as a nurse in the series Emergency Ward 10.

Collins also won great acclaim for her role in 1997 film Paradise Road, which tells the story of a group of women in a Japanese prisoner of war camp who defy their captors by founding an orchestra.

Her final film role was alongside Dame Joan Collins in 2017’s The Time Of Their Lives, which follows a retired actress and her friend as they travel from London to France for an ex-lover’s funeral.

In 2001 Collins was made an OBE for her services to drama.

The actress’s family said anyone wishing to donate in her memory can make a donation to Parkinson’s UK at parkinsons.org.uk/donate.