Dame Joan Henrietta CollinsDBE (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. With a career spanning nearly 8 decades, Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by the then Prince of Wales, Charles III.
Collins was born on 23 May 1933 in Paddington, London, and brought up in Maida Vale, the daughter of Elsa Collins (née Bessant), a dance teacher, and Joseph William Collins, a talent agent[citation needed] whose clients would later include Shirley Bassey, The Beatles and Tom Jones.[1] Her father, a native of South Africa, was Jewish, and her British mother was Anglican.[2][3][4][5] She had two younger siblings, Jackie, a novelist, and Bill, a property agent.[6][7] She was educated at the Francis Holland School, an independent day school for girls in London.[8]
After signing with Rank, Collins appeared in many British films. Her feature debut as a film extra playing a beauty contestant in Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) which featured Diana Dors.[10][11] Collins followed up with The Woman's Angle (1952) a minor role as a Greek maid. Next was a more significant role as a gangster's moll in Judgment Deferred (1952).
Collins's big break came with a major, highly publicised role as a juvenile delinquent in I Believe in You (1952). Her success in the part led to her initial stardom and the press nickname "Britain's Bad Girl". Her subsequent films whilst under contract to Rank included Decameron Nights (1953) with Joan Fontaine; England's first X certificate drama, Cosh Boy (1953), directed by Lewis Gilbert; Turn the Key Softly (1953), a drama about three women released from prison on the same day; and the boxing saga The Square Ring (1953).
In 1954, Collins was chosen by American director Howard Hawks to star as the scheming Princess Nellifer in her first international production, Land of the Pharaohs. The lavish Warner Brothers historical epic was unsuccessful upon release but has been lauded by Martin Scorsese and French critics supporting the auteur theory for numerous elements of its physical production. Danny Peary in his book Cult Movies (1981), selected it as a cultclassic.[12] Collins's sultry performance so impressed 20th Century Fox chief Darryl Zanuck that he signed the young star to a seven-year contract with the Hollywood studio.
In 1960, Collins became increasingly disillusioned with 20th Century Fox when, having been the original choice to play the title role in Cleopatra, the part went instead to Elizabeth Taylor. Collins withdrew from the studio's production of Sons and Lovers, and requested a release from her contract, however she agreed to star in one last film for Fox, top-billed again in the biblical epic Esther and the King (1960).
In 1970, Collins returned to Britain and starred in several films, mostly thrillers and horror films: Revenge (1971), as the vengeance-seeking mother of a murdered child; Quest for Love (1971), a romantic science-fiction piece; Tales from the Crypt (1972), a highly successful horror anthology; Fear in the Night (1972), a psychological horror from Jimmy Sangster; Dark Places (1973), a thriller with Christopher Lee; and Tales That Witness Madness (1973), another horror anthology. She went to Italy for the football-themed comedy L'arbitro (1974), to Spain for The Great Adventure opposite Jack Palance and returned to England for yet another horror, playing the mother of a murderous infant in I Don't Want to Be Born (1975).
After two comedies, Alfie Darling (1975) and The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones (1976), Collins returned to the US to make what she now refers to as the nadir of her film career, the giant insect science-fiction piece Empire of the Ants (1977). In Italy she was the leading lady in the thriller Fearless (1978); in the US made the lighthearted Zero to Sixty (1978); and back in the UK appeared with Robert Mitchum in The Big Sleep. In 1978, Collins was catapulted back to major stardom in the UK when she starred in the film version of her sister Jackie Collins's racy novel The Stud. It was made for $600,000 and went on to gross over $20,000,000 internationally.[18] At the same time she published her autobiography, Past Imperfect, which went to number 1 in the bestseller charts. The Stud was so successful that a sequel, The Bitch (1979).[19] was hastily arranged. It too was a hit.
In 1981 Collins accepted a role in the second season of the then-struggling soap opera Dynasty (1981–89), as Alexis Colby, the beautiful and vengeful ex-wife of oil tycoon Blake Carrington (John Forsythe). Dynasty became an enormous worldwide phenomenon, and by 1985 the programme was the number-one show in the United States, beating out CBS rival Dallas, which ranked number two.[20] For her portrayal of Alexis, Collins was nominated six times for a Golden Globe Award (every year from 1982 to 1987), winning in 1983,[21] the same year she was nominated for an Emmy as Best Actress in a Drama Series.[22] In accepting the award, Collins thanked Sophia Loren for turning down the part of Alexis.[23]
Her performance is generally credited as the chief factor in the fledgling show's subsequent rise in the Nielsen ratings[24] to a hit rivalling Dallas. In the 2001 E! True Hollywood Story episode featuring Dynasty, former ABC executive Ted Harbert stated, "The truth is we didn't really believe that we had this thing done as a hit until Joan Collins walked down that courtroom aisle."[citation needed] Co-star Al Corley noted that Collins "just flew" in the role that was "tailor made... just spot on." In Dynasty producer Aaron Spelling's final press interview, he said of Collins: "We didn't write Joan Collins. She played Joan Collins. Am I right? We wrote a character, but the character could have been played by 50 people and 49 of them would have failed. She made it work."[25] In recognition of her new status, in 1983 Collins was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for career achievement.
When Dynasty ended in 1989, Collins began rehearsals for her Broadway stage debut, as Amanda in a successful revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives (1990). She subsequently toured the US in the same play and also starred as Amanda in a production in London's West End.[30] In 1991, she also starred for BBC Television in a series of eight individual Noël Coward plays under the title Tonight at 8.30. In 1991, Collins rejoined her co-stars for Dynasty: The Reunion, a miniseries that concluded the cliffhanger ending left after the show's abrupt 1989 cancellation. In the 1990s, Collins continued to star in films including Decadence (1994) and In The Bleak Midwinter (1995).
On American television she made the TV movies Hart to Hart – Two Harts in 3/4 Time (1995), Annie: A Royal Adventure! (1995) and Sweet Deception (1998). She also made guest-star appearances on series such as Roseanne (1993), The Nanny (1996) and Will & Grace (2000), and played a recurring role in seven episodes of Pacific Palisades (1997). She was selected as the cover star for the relaunch of the popular celebrity magazine OK! when it changed from a monthly to a weekly.[31]
In early 2006, Collins toured the United Kingdom in An Evening with Joan Collins (US title One Night With Joan), a one-woman show in which she related the highs and lows of her career and life. The show was directed by her husband Percy Gibson, whom she married in 2002. She has continued to tour the world with the show and its sequel Joan Collins Unscripted ever since, including appearances in New York, Las Vegas, Dubai, Sydney, and twice at the London Palladium. In 2006—2007 she also toured North America for 30 weeks in the play Legends! with former Dynasty co-star Linda Evans.
In the mid-2000s, Collins's television work included the hit British television series Footballer's Wives as Eva de Wolffe (2005), the BBC series Hotel Babylon (2006) and Dynasty Reunion: Catfights and Caviar, a 2006 special featuring several of her Dynasty co-stars reminiscing about the original series. Collins guest-starred in They Do It with Mirrors, a two-hour episode of the murder-mystery drama Marple in 2009, as Ruth Van Rydock, a friend of detective Miss Jane Marple. In 2009, Collins presented her own reality television series entitled Joan Collins Does Glamour.[34]
2010s
In 2010 she joined the cast of the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love) for a short run, playing an aristocratic British woman, Lady Joan, who takes a young German prince in tow.[35] Famed for her double act with Leonard Rossiter in the Cinzano advertisements, in 2012 she starred in a Europe-wide commercial for Snickers chocolate bars, alongside Stephanie Beacham. Within a short time the advert was re-edited and Beacham's appearance cut.[36]
In 2016, Collins made a cameo appearance as herself in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. The following year she returned to the big screen with the starring role in the British comedy-drama The Time of Their Lives, playing a faded Hollywood star. In 2018 she appeared in a critically acclaimed short film, Gerry, for which she won the Best Actress award at the LA Shorts International Film Festival.
In April 2018, Ryan Murphy announced that Collins had joined the cast of American Horror Story for its eighth season American Horror Story: Apocalypse. She first portrayed Evie Gallant, the glamorous and rich grandmother of Evan Peters' character, and later portrayed witch actress Bubbles McGee. In March 2019 she guest-starred in an episode of the new Hawaii Five-O TV-series.[40]
2020s
In October 2019, she worked on the feature film The Loss Adjuster opposite Luke Goss and Martin Kemp, which was released in late 2020.[41] In 2021, Collins appeared in a short comedy spoof for Comic Relief entitled 2020: The Movie, in which she played Maggie Keenan, the first person to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.[42] Collins was set to star as Adelaide of Maurienne in the historical drama television series Glow and Darkness, alongside Jane Seymour and Denise Richards which she began filming for in 2020; it was set to be released in late 2021.[43] In May 2021, it was announced that Collins would have a role in the musical film Tomorrow Morning, based on the acclaimed musical play of the same name; the film was released in September 2022.[44]
Other ventures
Philanthropy
Collins has publicly supported several charities for several decades. In 1982, Collins spoke before the U.S. Congress about increasing funding for neurological research. In 1983, she was named a patron of the International Foundation for Children with Learning Disabilities, earning the foundation's highest honour in 1988 for her continuing support. Additionally, 1988 also saw the opening of the Joan Collins Wing of the Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. In 1990, she was made an honorary founding member of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
In 1994, Collins was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Association of Breast Cancer Studies in Great Britain for her contribution to breast cancer awareness in the UK. Collins is patron of Fight for Sight; in 2003, she became a patron of the Shooting Star Chase Children's Hospice in Great Britain, while continuing to support several foster children in India, something she has done for the past 35 years. Collins serves her former school, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, as the Honorary President of the RADA Associates.[45]
Collins has established herself as a successful author. In addition to her bestselling novels, including Prime Time and Love & Desire & Hate, she has also written six lifestyle books, including The Joan Collins Beauty Book, as well as memoirs, including Past Imperfect. To date, she has sold over 50 million copies of her books, which have been translated into 30 languages.[46]
Personal life
Marriages and family
Collins has been married five times,[47] first to Northern Irish actor Maxwell Reed, whom she married on 24 May 1952 after he raped her.[48][49][50] She divorced Reed in 1956.[51]
In 1959, Collins began a relationship with the then-unknown actor Warren Beatty. They became engaged in 1960, but his infidelity led to their split.[52] Collins revealed in her 1978 autobiography that she became pregnant by Beatty but had an abortion to avoid a scandal that at the time could have seriously damaged their careers.[53]
In 1963, she married actor and singer-songwriter Anthony Newley with whom she had two children, Tara and Alexander. She wed her third husband, American businessman Ron Kass in 1972, and the couple had a daughter (Katyana).[citation needed]
After Collins' marriage to Kass ended in divorce in 1983, she married former singer Peter Holm on 3 November 1985 in a ceremony in Las Vegas.[54] After a bitter separation, they were divorced on 25 August 1987.[citation needed]
She married her fifth and current husband Percy Gibson, who is 31 years her junior, on 17 February 2002 at Claridge's Hotel in London.[55]
Collins's younger sister was Jackie Collins, a bestselling author, who died in September 2015. Collins was informed only two weeks before her sister's death about the breast cancer Jackie had suffered from for over six years.[citation needed]
Over the years, Collins has been named "England's most beautiful girl".[57]
Collins maintains residences in London, Los Angeles, New York City, and France,[58] describing her life in 2010 as being "that of a gypsy".[59]
In 2019, Collins and Gibson escaped a "terrifying" fire at her London flat in Eaton Place. Gibson was able to contain the blaze using a fire extinguisher before the emergency services arrived. Collins was treated for smoke inhalation but was otherwise unharmed and thanked the emergency response crews on social media.[60][61]