For many years she shared a Hampstead home with husband and fellow actor John Alderton – living on the same street as her Shirley Valentine co-star Tom Conti.
The mother-of-four will also be remembered for numerous roles, from her screen debut as a nurse in Emergency Ward 10 to the first series of the sit-com The Liver Birds and Upstairs Downstairs, which she joined in 1971.
In a statement, her family said: “We are heartbroken to announce that Pauline Collins died peacefully at her care home in Highgate this week, having endured Parkinson’s for several years. She was surrounded by her family.”
Born in Exmouth in 1940 and raised in Liverpool, Pauline married John Alderton in 1969 and the duo shared three children, Kate, Richard and Nic.
A daughter Louise, from a previous relationship, was given up for adoption in 1964 but the pair were reunited years later.
Alongside their long marriage, Pauline and John were also contented acting partners, performing together in numerous TV and film roles.
He 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.
“I saw 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.”
Her best known role was as a bored Liverpool housewife in Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine, which she first played in the West End in 1988, winning her an Olivier Award.
The following year it was turned into a hugely successful film that earned her an Oscar nomination.
John added: “She will always be remembered for Shirley Valentine. But her greatest performance was as my wife and mother to our beautiful children.”
The family statement went on : “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.
“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.
“More than anything, though, she was our loving mum, our wonderful grandma and great-grandma. Warm, funny, generous, thoughtful, wise, she was always there for us. And she was John’s life-long love. A partner, work collaborator, and wife of 56 years.”
Tributes following news of her death included Tom Conti, who told BBC Breakfast how he and Pauline were neighbours and friends before they acted together.
“We lived in the same road for 30 years. We were neighbours. We were in and out of each other’s houses all the time. It was a very long friendship. I knew her long before we did Shirley Valentine together,” he said.
He also told the show’s hosts: “Pauline changed my life because of her phenomenal work on Shirley V.”
“The secret of acting is not acting and she was brilliant at that. She just talked, and you believed her absolutely, everything that she said. You believed completely. Because you weren’t watching an actress, you were watching a person. That’s a phenomenal skill.”
Her Shirley Valentine co-star Dame Joanna Lumley also recalled an “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.”
In later life Pauline won acclaim for her role in the 1997 film Paradise Road co-starring Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett and Frances McDormand, about a group of women in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
And in 1992 she starred with Patrick Swayze in City Of Joy and with Dustin Hoffman in the 2012 comedy Quartet.
The family has asked for donations to go to Parkinson’s UK, and praised her carers, the “angels who looked after her with dignity, compassion, and most of all love”.
“She could not have had a more peaceful goodbye.”
