Joan Collins
- In full:
- Dame Joan Henrietta Collins
- Also Known As:
- Dame Joan Henrietta Collins
- Notable Family Members:
- sister Jackie Collins
Joan Collins (born May 23, 1933, London, England) is an English actress known for her portrayals of bombshells and sexpots, notably the scheming seductress Alexis Carrington on the soap opera Dynasty (1981–89).
Collins was raised in London, the oldest of three children of a theatrical agent and a former dancer. Owing to their father’s profession, Collins and her siblings were exposed to the entertainment industry from a young age, and Joan became especially interested in acting and film. While still a student, she made her stage debut in a 1946 production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, and at age 15 she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She occasionally took modeling jobs to supplement her allowance, and through this work she eventually caught the eye of a film agent. In 1951 she first appeared on-screen, though in an uncredited role, in Lady Godiva Rides Again (also called Bikini Baby). The following year Collins received her first film credit, playing a teenage delinquent in Judgement Deferred. For her part as the wayward Norma in her next film, I Believe in You (1952), she signed a five-year contract with J. Arthur Rank’s entertainment company.
A string of roles as harlots and troubled teenagers followed, and Collins soon made a name for herself as “Britain’s Bad Girl.” One of her biggest breaks was the role of evil Princess Nellifer in Land of the Pharaohs (1955), directed by Howard Hawks, which helped her break into Hollywood. While filming she was spotted by Hollywood executive Darryl F. Zanuck, and her British film contract was soon bought by Twentieth Century-Fox. The typecasting persisted, and wanton teens gave way to torrid vamps, which she continued to play (with brief respites) for more than five decades, both on film and on television. She made waves for venturing into soft-core pornography with The Stud (1978) and its sequel, The Bitch (1979), both film adaptations of romance novels by her sister Jackie. Arguably her most memorable role was that of Alexis Carrington, the scheming ex-wife of patriarch Blake Carrington on Aaron Spelling’s prime-time drama Dynasty (1981–89) and its follow-up television movie Dynasty: The Reunion (1991).
After Dynasty’s end, Collins turned back to her early love, the stage, making her Broadway debut in Private Lives (1992). She continued to work regularly on screens big and small and onstage into the 21st century. In 2006 she toured the United Kingdom with a solo stage act, An Evening with Joan Collins, and she took the show to the United States for a tour three years later. Usually trading on her gleefully imperious persona, Collins made guest appearances on a variety of television shows, including Footballers’ Wives, Happily Divorced, and The Royals.
Collins also published several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her first, the autobiography Past Imperfect (1978; revised 1984), reflected on her early life and career, especially her tempestuous love life. She went on to publish several more memoirs, including Katy: A Fight for Life (1982), which dealt with her daughter’s rehabilitation from brain damage after being hit by a car, and The World According to Joan (2011). In the late 1980s Collins turned to fiction, following in her sister’s footsteps with glitzy romance novels such as Prime Time (1988), Love and Desire and Hate (1990), and Star Quality (2002). She also published several beauty books and was a contributor to periodicals.
Collins was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997 and named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2015.