Joan Collins
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. She 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. 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 Prince of Wales.
Collins trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She signed to The Rank Organisation at the age of 17 and had small roles in the British films Lady Godiva Rides Again and The Woman's Angle before taking on a supporting role in Judgment Deferred. She went under contract to 20th Century Fox in 1955, and in that same year she starred as Evelyn Nesbit in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, Elizabeth Raleigh in The Virgin Queen and Princess Nellifer in Land of the Pharaohs, the latter garnering a cult following. Collins continued to take on film roles throughout the late 1950s, appearing in The Opposite Sex, Sea Wife, and The Wayward Bus. After starring in the epic film Esther and the King, she was, upon request, released from her contract with 20th Century Fox.
Collins appeared only in a few film roles in the 1960s, notably starring in Seven Thieves, The Road to Hong Kong, and Warning Shot. She also appeared in an episode of Star Trek and in Subterfuge. She began to take on local roles again back in Britain in the 1970s, appearing in the films Revenge, Quest for Love, Tales from the Crypt, Fear in the Night, Dark Places and Tales That Witness Madness, as well as Empire of the Ants, which earned her a Saturn Award nomination, The Stud, Zero to Sixty, Game for Vultures, and The Bitch.
From 1981 to 1989, Collins starred as Alexis Colby in the soap opera Dynasty, which made her an international superstar. It brought her critical acclaim, winning her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama in 1982, and earning her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1984.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Collins worked sporadically in acting. She took fewer film roles, most notably appearing in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas and the TV movie These Old Broads alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds and Shirley MacLaine. She made her comeback to mainstream television in the 2010s, taking on recurring roles in the series Happily Divorced, The Royals, Benidorm and American Horror Story: Apocalypse. Her first starring film role since the 1980s was The Time of Their Lives, and she has also appeared in various independent films, which includes the critically acclaimed Gerry.
Early life
Joan Henrietta Collins was born on 23 May 1933 in Paddington, London, and brought up in Maida Vale, the daughter of Elsa Collins, a dance teacher, and Joseph William Collins, a talent agent. Her father, a native of South Africa, was Jewish, and her British mother was Anglican. She had two younger siblings, Jackie, a novelist, and Bill, a property agent. She was educated at the Francis Holland School, an independent day school for girls in London. Collins made her stage debut in the Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House at the age of nine, and at the age of 16 trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. At the age of 17, Collins was signed to the Rank Organisation, a British film studio.Acting career
1950s
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 which featured Diana Dors. Collins followed up with The Woman's Angle a minor role as a Greek maid. Next was a more significant role as a gangster's moll in Judgment Deferred.Collins's big break came with a major, highly publicised role as a juvenile delinquent in I Believe in You. 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 with Joan Fontaine; England's first X certificate drama, Cosh Boy, directed by Lewis Gilbert; Turn the Key Softly, a drama about three women released from prison on the same day; and the boxing saga The Square Ring.
Collins was top-billed in the desert island comedy Our Girl Friday, co starring Kenneth More. She was directed again by Lewis Gilbert in The Good Die Young with Laurence Harvey and Gloria Grahame. Between films, she appeared in several plays in London including The Seventh Veil, Jassy, Claudia and David, and The Skin of Our Teeth, as well as a UK tour of The Praying Mantis.
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, selected it as a cult classic. 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.
Collins made her Hollywood film debut in the lavish historical drama The Virgin Queen. The British newcomer was given equal billing with established stars Bette Davis and Richard Todd. The same year, Collins was cast in the starring role of Evelyn Nesbit in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing with Ray Milland and Farley Granger. The part had originally been intended for Marilyn Monroe, however problems between Monroe and Fox led to Collins gaining the role.
MGM borrowed Collins for The Opposite Sex, a musical remake of The Women in which she was cast as the gold digging Crystal, the role played by Joan Crawford in the original. She then starred as a young nun in Sea Wife, top-billed over co-star Richard Burton, followed by the all-star Island in the Sun, which was a major box-office success. The film earned $5,550,000 worldwide, and finished as the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1957. In 1957, she was top-billed over Jayne Mansfield in the film version of John Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus, which despite disappointing reviews was nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear Award at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival. She then starred opposite Robert Wagner in the espionage thriller Stopover Tokyo, and was Gregory Peck's leading lady in the Western drama The Bravados. The Leo McCarey comedy Rally Round the Flag, Boys cast Collins as a temptress out to seduce Paul Newman away from Joanne Woodward. Next came the tense crime caper Seven Thieves opposite Edward G. Robinson and Rod Steiger.
1960s
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, but agreed to star in one last film for Fox, top-billed again in the biblical epic Esther and the King.In 1961, she returned to London to star opposite Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the last of that film duo's "road" pictures, The Road to Hong Kong. Former "road" leading lady Dorothy Lamour was relegated to a guest appearance in the film. In Italy, Collins starred in Hard Time for Princes ; back in the US she played David Janssen's wife in the detective thriller Warning Shot ; in the UK she was the leading lady in the spy caper Subterfuge ; and made a cameo appearance in the comedy If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.
In the US, Collins starred opposite then-husband Anthony Newley in his autobiographical musical Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, a decision she later regretted. Then came the female lead in the Italian drama L'amore brave, The Executioner, a thriller with George Peppard, and Up in the Cellar, a quasisequel to Three in the Attic. Although she had made several appearances on interview and game shows in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Collins began her television dramatic career with a guest role in The Human Jungle in 1963. Her notable appearances on American television during the 1960s included playing the villainous Siren in Batman, Run For Your Life, The Virginian, Mission: Impossible, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and in Star Trek: The Original Series, she played Edith Keeler in the episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever", an episode noted by many critics and fans as the best Star Trek episode of the whole franchise
1970s
In the 1970s, Collins remained busy on television. She starred in the TV movies The Man Who Came to Dinner with Orson Welles and Lee Remick, and Drive Hard, Drive Fast opposite Brian Kelly. Her many guest appearances during the decade included The Persuaders! alongside Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, Fallen Angels with Susannah York, Space 1999, Orson Welles Great Mysteries, Police Woman, The Moneychangers with Kirk Douglas and Christopher Plummer, Starsky and Hutch, Tattletales, Switch, Future Cop, Ellery Queen, The Fantastic Journey, Baretta and three separate episodes of Tales of the Unexpected. She rounded off the decade playing Cleopatra in an episode of Aaron Spelling's Fantasy Island.In 1970, Collins returned to Britain and starred in several films, mostly thrillers and horror films: Revenge, as the vengeance-seeking mother of a murdered child; Quest for Love, a romantic science-fiction piece; Tales from the Crypt, a highly successful horror anthology; Fear in the Night, a psychological horror from Jimmy Sangster; Dark Places, a thriller with Christopher Lee; and Tales That Witness Madness, another horror anthology. She went to Italy for the football-themed comedy L'arbitro, 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.
After two comedies, Alfie Darling and The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones, 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. In Italy she was the leading lady in the thriller Fearless ; in the US made the lighthearted Zero to Sixty ; 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. 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 was hastily arranged and was also a hit. After shooting Game for Vultures opposite Richard Harris and Sunburn with Farrah Fawcett, Collins returned to the stage for the first time in many years to play the title role in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney in London's West End.