Pauline Collins

Pauline Collins OBE
Collins in 2012
Born	(1940-09-03) 3 September 1940 Exmouth, Devon, England
Alma mater	Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1963–present
Spouse	John Alderton ​ (m. 1969)​
Children	4

Pauline Collins (born 3 September 1940) is a British actress who first came to prominence portraying Sarah Moffat in Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1973) and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah (1979). In 1992, she published her autobiography Letter to Louise.

Collins played the title role in the play Shirley Valentine for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She reprised the role in the 1989 film adaptation of the play, winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also starred in the television dramas Forever Green (1989–1992) and The Ambassador (1998–1999). Her other film appearances include City of Joy (1992), Paradise Road (1997), Albert Nobbs (2011), Quartet (2012), and The Time of Their Lives (2017).

Early life and career

Collins was born on 3 September 1940 in Exmouth, Devon, the daughter of Mary Honora (née Callanan), a schoolteacher, and William Henry Collins, a school headmaster. She is of Irish extraction, and was brought up as a Catholic in Wallasey, Cheshire. Her great-uncle was Irish poet Jeremiah Joseph Callanan.

Collins was educated at Sacred Heart High School and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Before turning to acting, she worked as a teacher until 1962. She made her stage debut at Windsor, Berkshire in A Gazelle in Park Lane in 1962 and her West End debut in Passion Flower Hotel in 1965. During the play's run, she made her first film, titled Secrets of a Windmill Girl, released in 1966. More stage roles followed.

Collins played Samantha Briggs in the 1967 Doctor Who serial The Faceless Ones and was offered the chance to continue in the series as a new companion for the Doctor, but declined the role.

Other early television credits include the UK's first medical soap Emergency Ward 10 (1960), and the pilot episode and first series of The Liver Birds, both in 1969.

Collins first became well known for her role as the maid Sarah in the 1970s drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. The character appeared regularly throughout the first two series, the second of which starred her actor husband John Alderton, with whom she later starred in the spin-off Thomas & Sarah (1979); the sitcom No, Honestly, written by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham; and a series of short-story adaptations titled Wodehouse Playhouse (1975–1978). She co-narrated the animated British children's television series Little Miss with Alderton in 1983.

In connection with her role on Upstairs, Downstairs, Collins recorded the 1973 single "What Are We Going to Do with Uncle Arthur?" (performed by her character several times during the series) backed with "With Every Passing Day" (a vocal version of the show's theme).

She was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in April 1972, when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

Shirley Valentine and recent years

In 1988, Collins starred in the one-woman play Shirley Valentine in London, reprising the role on Broadway in 1989 and in the 1989 film version. The film won a number of awards and nominations; Collins was nominated for the Oscar as Best Actress and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Both the play and the feature film used the technique known as breaking the fourth wall as the character Shirley Valentine directly addresses the audience throughout the story.

After Shirley Valentine, Collins starred with her husband in the popular ITV drama series Forever Green, created and written by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham in which the fictitious couple escape the city with their children to start a new life in the country. It ran from 1989 to 1992 over 18 episodes. Collins was voted sexiest woman in Britain in 1990.

Collins' film credits include 1992's City of Joy, 1995's My Mother's Courage, 1997's Paradise Road, and 2002's Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War, which also featured Alderton. In 1999 and 2000, Collins starred as Harriet Smith in the BBC television drama Ambassador. Other television credits include The Saint, The Wednesday Play, Armchair Theatre, Play for Today, Tales of the Unexpected, Country Matters, and The Black Tower.

In 2002, she guest-starred in Man and Boy, the dramatisation of Tony Parsons' best-seller. In 2005, she appeared as Miss Flite in the BBC production of Charles Dickens' Bleak House.

In 2006, she became the third actor to have been in both the original and new series of Doctor Who, appearing in the episode "Tooth and Claw" as Queen Victoria.

Later in 2006, she appeared in Extinct, a programme where eight celebrities campaigned on behalf of an animal to save it from extinction. Collins campaigned to save the Bengal tiger and won the public vote.

In December 2007, she appeared as the fairy godmother in the pantomime Cinderella at the Old Vic in London.

In 2011, she was cast as part of the comedy-drama Mount Pleasant. She played the role of Sue, Lisa's mother, in the first two series running into 2012. She did not return to the third series in 2013, and her character was killed off in the fourth series in 2014.

In late 2015, she appeared as Mrs Gamp in the BBC TV series Dickensian.

Collins was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2001 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

Personal life

Collins married actor John Alderton in 1969 and lives in Hampstead, London with her husband and their three children Nicholas, Kate, and Richard. She also has an older daughter, Louise, with actor Tony Rohr. Collins gave Louise up for adoption in 1964 when she was a penniless single mother. They were reunited when Louise was 22 years old. Collins's book, Letter To Louise, documents these events.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	Secrets of a Windmill Girl	Pat Lord
1989	Shirley Valentine	Shirley Valentine-Bradshaw
1992	City of Joy	Joan Bethel
1995	My Mother's Courage	Elsa Tabori
1997	Paradise Road	Daisy 'Margaret' Drummond
2000	One Life Stand	Karaoke Crowd
2002	Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War	Thelma Caldicot
2009	From Time to Time	Mrs. Tweedie
2010	You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger	Cristal
2011	Albert Nobbs	Margaret 'Madge' Baker
2012	Quartet	Cissy Robson
2015	Dough	Joanna
2017	The Time of Their Lives	Priscilla
	Byrd and the Bees	Beatrice

Television

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1963	Emergency – Ward 10	Nurse Elliott	Phil Brown	1 episode
1966	The Marriage Lines	Jean	Robin Nash	Episode: "Big Business"
	Pardon the Expression	Miss Wainwright / Val	Michael Cox	3 episodes
	The Corridor People	Syrie's maid	David Boisseau	Episode: "Victim as Black"
	Theatre 625	Clara	James Ferman	Episode: "Amerika"
	The Saint	Marie-Therese	Gordon Flemyng	Episode: "The Better Mousetrap"
	Blackmail	Freida Straker		Episode: "Please Do Not Disturb"
	The Three Musketeers	Kitty	Peter Hammond	2 episodes
	The Making of Jericho			TV film
1967	Doctor Who	Samantha Briggs	Gerry Mill	Serial: "The Faceless Ones"
	Softly, Softly	Marilyn	Bill Hays	Episode: "Somebody Important"
1968	B and B	Chantal		Episode: "No Son of Mine"
	Armchair Theatre	Betty / Mary Murtagh	Guy Verney Marc Miller	TV series (2 episodes)
1969	The Old Campaigner	Winnie Haldane		Episode: "French Farce"
	Comedy Playhouse	Dawn / Marjorie		2 episodes
	The Liver Birds	Dawn		5 episodes
	The Wednesday Play	Angelina / Joan Percival	Marc Miller (X2) John Mackenzie	2 episodes
	Parkin's Patch	Doreen Ashworth	Raymond Menmuir	Episode: "A Pair of Good Shoes"
1970	The Mating Machine	Elizabeth	Howard Ross	Episode: "Who Sleeps on the Right?"
1972	Thirty-Minute Theatre	The Girl	Gilchrist Calder	Episode: "King's Cross Lunch Hour"
	Country Matters	Ruby		Episode: "Crippled Bloom")
1971–1973	Upstairs, Downstairs	Sarah Moffat	Various directors	13 episodes
1973	Armchair 30	Carol	Piers Haggard	Episode: "Carol's Story"
1974	No, Honestly	Clara Burrell-Danby	David Askey	13 episodes
1975	BBC Play of the Month	Lady Teazle	Stuart Burge	Episode: "The School for Scandal"
1975–1976	Wodehouse Playhouse	various characters	various directors	13 episodes
1979	Thomas & Sarah	Sarah Moffat	various directors
	Play for Today	Eileen	Stephen Frears	Episode: "Long Distance Information"
1980	Tales of the Unexpected	Pat Lewis	Graham Evans	Episode: "A Girl Can't Always Have Everything"
1983	Little Misses and the Mr. Men	Narrator, various female characters	Trevor Bond Terry Ward	TV series
1984	Knockback	Sylvia	Piers Haggard (X2)	TV movie
1985	Tropical Moon Over Dorking	Myra	Robert Chetwyn
	The Black Tower	Maggie Hewson	Ronald Wilson	5 episodes
1988	Tales of the Unexpected	Eve Peregrine	Barry Davis	Episode: "The Colonel's Lady"
1989–1992	Forever Green	Harriet Boult	David Giles Sarah Hellings Christopher King	18 episodes
1996	Flowers of the Forest	Aileen Matthews	Michael Whyte	TV movie
1998–1999	The Ambassador	Harriet Smith	various directors	13 Episodes
2000	Little Grey Rabbit		Jean Flynn	TV series
2002	Man and Boy	Betty Silver	Simon Curtis	TV movie
2003	Sparkling Cyanide	Dr. Catherine Kendall	Tristram Powell
2005	Bleak House	Miss Flite	Justin Chadwick Susanna White	10 episodes
2006	Doctor Who	Queen Victoria	Euros Lyn	Episode: "Tooth and Claw"
	What We Did on Our Holiday	Lil Taylor	Jeremy Webb	TV movie
2010	Agatha Christie's Marple	Thyrza Grey	Andy Hay	Episode: "The Pale Horse"
	Merlin	Alice	Alice Troughton	Episode: "Love in the Time of Dragons"
2011–2012	Mount Pleasant	Sue	Dewi Humphreys Ian Barnes Dermot Boyd	14 episodes
2015–2016	Dickensian	Mrs Gamp	Tony Jordan various Tony Jordan	20 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Awards	Category	Nominated works	Results	Ref.
1973	British Academy Television Awards	Best Actress	Upstairs, Downstairs / Country Matters / Crippled Bloom	Nominated
1976	Laurence Olivier Awards	Actress of the Year in a New Play	Engaged	Nominated
1984	CableACE Awards	Best Actress in a Theatrical or Dramatic Special	Knockback	Nominated
1988	Laurence Olivier Awards	Actress of the Year in a New Play	Shirley Valentine	Won
1989	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actress in a Play		Won
	Drama League Award	Distinguished Performance Award		Won
	Outer Critics Circle Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Play		Won
	Theatre World Award	Best Actress		Won
	Tony Awards	Best Actress in a Play		Won
1990	Academy Awards	Best Actress	Shirley Valentine	Nominated
	British Academy Film Awards	Best Actress in a Leading Role		Won
	Evening Standard British Film Awards	Best Actress		Won
	Golden Apple Award	Best Actress		Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy		Nominated

External links

• Pauline Collins at the Internet Broadway Database
• Pauline Collins at IMDb
• Pauline Collins images
• 2001 profile
• Article about Collins' receipt of the OBE