Pauline Collins, Oscar-nominated British star of 'Shirley Valentine,' dies at 85

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British actor Pauline Collins, who earned an Oscar nomination for her turn as the stuck-in-a-rut housewife of “Shirley Valentine,” has died.She was 85.

Collins’ family said in a statement Thursday that the actor died peacefully this week at her care home in north London after living with Parkinson’s disease for several years.In the statement, her family said Collins “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,” the family described the versatile actor, whose career began in the 1960s.Collins was well into her 40s when she starred in “Shirley Valentine,” a witty but disgruntled homemaker who accepts a girlfriend’s offer to travel to Greece to bring much-needed spice back to her life.

“Sex for breakfast, sex for dinner, sex for tea and sex for supper,” Shirley proudly declares in the 1989 film, directed by Lewis Gilbert.Entertainment & Arts Actor Diane Ladd died Monday at her home in Ojai, her Oscar-winning daughter Laura Dern announced, saying, ‘She is flying with her angels now.’ Ladd was 89.For Collins, “Shirley Valentine” was more than just an ode to womanhood, self-love and self-discovery.

It was also a chance to challenge the conventions of aging in entertainment, including by shooting a nude scene for the film.“My only sorrow was that I wasn’t younger and thinner,” a 49-year-old Collins told The Times in 1989.

“But if I were Jamie Lee Curtis, I wouldn’t have been right for the part.”“Shirley Valentine,” which also starred Tom Conti as her on-screen Greek lover and Alison Steadman as her friend, led Collins to receive her sole Academy Award nomination, a nod in the leading actress category.The film also received an original song Oscar nomination for Patti Austin’s “The Girl Who Used to Be Me,” written by Marvin Hamlisch and ...