Pauline Angela Collins was born of Irish ancestry in Exmouth, Devonshire, England, the daughter of school headmaster William Henry Collins (1911-1977) and teacher Mary Honora (née Callanan). She spent her early education at a Catholic convent school and eventually studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
On stage from 1962 and on screen from 1963, Collins' first flirtation with fame was for the role of Sarah, the parlourmaid in ITV's popular period drama Das Haus am Eaton Place (1971). Her character's popularity helped spawn a spin-off series, Thomas and Sarah (1979), co-starring her husband John Alderton who also reprised his role as chauffeur Thomas Watkins. The couple also appeared together in the marital sitcom No, Honestly (1974), in Wodehouse Playhouse (1974) and in the bucolic drama Forever Green (1989).
In her own right, Collins starred as the British ambassador to Ireland in the 12-part series The Ambassador (1998). She made two appearances on Doctor Who (2005), notably as Queen Victoria in the episode Tooth and Claw (with David Tennant as the Doctor). Her other TV guest roles have included Ungewöhnliche Geschichten von Roald Dahl (1979), Bleak House (2005) (the deluded, somewhat dotty chancery suitor Miss Flite), Agatha Christie's Marple (2004) (Thyrza Grey, manager of The Pale Horse inn) and Dickensian (2015) (self-serving midwife Miss Gamp). On the big screen, Collins co-starred opposite Patrick Swayze in Stadt der Freude (1992), filmed on location in Calcutta.
Collins will be remembered best as the eponymous heroine in the feel-good movie Shirley Valentine - Auf Wiedersehen, mein lieber Mann (1989), a role she first performed on stage in 1988 in London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre. The play then transferred to Broadway, running for 324 performances at the Booth Theatre, directed by Simon Callow. The famous film version followed in 1989 to great critical and popular acclaim with Collins adding a BAFTA and a Golden Globe to her previous Tony Award. For services to drama, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2001 Birthday Honours.
Pauline Collins died in November 2025 at the age of 85 at a London care facility, having battled Parkinson's disease for several years prior.
