Pauline Collins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pauline Collins OBE
Collins in 2012
Born	(1940-09-03) 3 September 1940 (age 84) Exmouth, Devon, England
Alma mater	Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1963–present
Spouse(s)	John Alderton ​ (m. 1969)​
Children	4

Pauline Collins is a talented British actress born on September 3, 1940. She became famous for playing Sarah Moffat in the TV show Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1973) and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah (1979). In 1992, she wrote a book about her life called Letter to Louise.

Pauline Collins also starred in the play Shirley Valentine. For this role, she won important awards like the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She played the same character in the 1989 movie version, which earned her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also appeared in TV dramas such as Forever Green (1989–1992) and The Ambassador (1998–1999). Her other movies include City of Joy (1992), Paradise Road (1997), Albert Nobbs (2011), Quartet (2012), and The Time of Their Lives (2017).

Early Life and Acting Start

Pauline Collins was born in Exmouth, Devon, England. Her mother, Mary Honora, was a schoolteacher, and her father, William Henry Collins, was a school headmaster. She grew up in Wallasey, Cheshire, and was raised Catholic. Her family has Irish roots.

Pauline went to Sacred Heart High School and later studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Before becoming an actress, she worked as a teacher until 1962. She first performed on stage in 1962 in a play called A Gazelle in Park Lane. Her first big performance in London's West End was in Passion Flower Hotel in 1965. While performing in that play, she also made her first movie, Secrets of a Windmill Girl, which came out in 1966.

Early TV Roles and Upstairs, Downstairs

In 1967, Pauline played Samantha Briggs in the Doctor Who episode "The Faceless Ones". She was offered a chance to stay on the show as a new companion for the Doctor, but she decided not to.

She also appeared in other early TV shows. These included Emergency Ward 10 in 1960, which was one of the UK's first medical soap operas. In 1969, she was in the first series of The Liver Birds.

Pauline became very well-known for her role as Sarah, the maid, in the 1970s drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. Her character was a regular in the first two seasons. Her husband, John Alderton, also starred in the second season. They later worked together on other shows like the spin-off Thomas & Sarah (1979) and the comedy show No, Honestly. They also narrated the children's TV series Little Miss in 1983.

Shirley Valentine and Later Career

In 1988, Pauline Collins starred in the play Shirley Valentine in London. She then performed it on Broadway in 1989 and in the movie version that same year. The movie won many awards. Pauline was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. In both the play and the movie, her character, Shirley Valentine, talked directly to the audience.

After Shirley Valentine, Pauline and her husband starred in the popular ITV drama series Forever Green. In this show, their characters moved from the city to the countryside with their children for a new life. The series ran from 1989 to 1992.

More Film and TV Work

Pauline's other movies include City of Joy (1992), My Mother's Courage (1995), Paradise Road (1997), and Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War (2002), which also featured her husband. From 1998 to 1999, she played Harriet Smith in the BBC TV drama The Ambassador.

In 2002, she appeared in Man and Boy, a TV movie based on a popular book. In 2005, she played Miss Flite in the BBC's show Bleak House, based on the book by Charles Dickens.

In 2006, she made history by being one of the few actors to appear in both the original and new series of Doctor Who. She played Queen Victoria in the episode "Tooth and Claw". Later that year, she was on a show called Extinct, where celebrities campaigned to save animals from extinction. Pauline campaigned for the Bengal tiger and won the public vote.

In 2011, she joined the cast of the comedy-drama Mount Pleasant. She played Sue, Lisa's mother, for the first two seasons.

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

Pauline Collins was honored with the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001 for her contributions to drama. This is a special award given by the British monarch.

Personal Life

Pauline Collins married actor John Alderton in 1969. They live in Hampstead, London, with their three children: Nicholas, Kate, and Richard. Pauline also has an older daughter named Louise from a previous relationship with actor Tony Rohr. Pauline gave Louise up for adoption in 1964 when she was a young single mother. They were reunited when Louise was 22 years old. Pauline wrote about this experience in her book, Letter To Louise.

Film Appearances

Television Roles

Theatre Performances

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Pauline Collins para niños