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Joan Collins
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Joan Henrietta Collins OBE (born 23 May 1933) is a Golden Globe Award-winning English actress, bestselling author and columnist.
ins was born in Paddington, London, UK the daughter of Elsa (née Bessant), a dance teacher and nightclub hostess, and Joseph William Collins, an agent whose clients would later include Shirley Bassey, The Beatles and Tom Jones. Collins's South African-born father was Jewish and her British mother was Anglican.
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Encyclopedia
Joan Henrietta Collins OBE (born 23 May 1933) is a Golden Globe Award-winning English actress, bestselling author and columnist.
Early life
Collins was born in Paddington, London, UK the daughter of Elsa (née Bessant), a dance teacher and nightclub hostess, and Joseph William Collins, an agent whose clients would later include Shirley Bassey, The Beatles and Tom Jones. Collins's South African-born father was Jewish and her British mother was Anglican. She has one sister, the author Jackie Collins, and a brother, Bill Collins. Collins was educated at the Francis Holland School and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Collins' childhood was spent in and around Maida Vale and was, according to Collins, an idyllic one with plenty of love, comfort and security. Her father, however, was also a strict disciplinarian and exerted a strong hold over her gentle mother, an attitude which came to irritate her daughters who sought to rebel against it. Collins has said of her father that "He was detached, cold, hard, critical, difficult, acerbic and everyone had to please him." He said himself in his 1986 autobiography, A Touch of Collins: "I love my daughters but I am not the kind of parent who deludes himself that his children are superior to everyone else's. I did not think of them as particularly outstanding in any way."
At the age of 17 Collins was signed to the J. Arthur Rank Film Company, a highly profitable British studio.
Early career
In 1951, she made her feature debut as a beauty contest entrant in Lady Godiva Rides Again and in 1952 she starred in the film I Believe in You based on the book Court Circular by Sewell Stokes. She was next signed by 20th Century Fox in 1954 as their answer to MGM's Elizabeth Taylor. According to a September 11, 1954 article in Picture Post, Collins was frustrated by her time at Rank. Collins told the popular Hulton Press Weekly, "They’re always carrying on about there being no women of star material in England. They don’t bother to build us up. They concentrate on building the men." She appeared in Island in the Sun (1957).
Collins was popular as a magazine pin-up in the UK throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, with cover appearances on titles such as Span and 66.
Her notable guest appearances on American television during the 1960s included Batman, Mission: Impossible, Police Woman, and the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever."
In the 1970s, Collins made several movies and then starred in the film versions of her sister Jackie Collins' racy novels The Stud and The Bitch. The films were smash hits in England, becoming the most profitable films since the James Bond series. Collins has worked with some of the biggest names and movie legends in Hollywood, including Richard Burton, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, Laurence Harvey, Bob Hope, James Mason, Robert Mitchum, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Sir Laurence Olivier, Edward G. Robinson, Sir Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger, James Stewart, Joanne Woodward, Jayne Mansfield, Sir John Gielgud and Sir Nigel Hawthorne.
Dynasty
In the 1981, Collins' was offered a role in the then-struggling new prime time soap opera Dynasty (1981-1989) playing Alexis, the vengeful ex-wife of tycoon Blake Carrington (John Forsythe). The role successfully relaunched Collins as a powerful sex symbol and icon of independence. Her performance is generally credited as one factor in the fledgling show's subsequent rise in the Nielsen Ratings to a hit rivaling Dallas.
In 1985, Dynasty was the #1 show in the U.S., and Collins also went on to become the highest-paid actress on television at the time, and remained with the series until its 1989 cancellation. As Alexis, Collins was nominated six times for a Golden Globe Award (every year from 1982 to 1987), winning once in 1983. Delighting the audience in attendance at the ceremony, Joan thanked
Sophia Loren for turning down the part of Alexis. She arguably became the most celebrated television star of the 1980s and her character, Alexis, perhaps the most infamous clotheshorse and villainess of the decade. Dynasty was shown in more than 80 countries and is still internationally syndicated. TV Guide selected Collins' portrayal of Alexis as the fourth greatest villain in television history.
In 1983, Collins starred in Making of a Male Model with young model-actor Jon-Erik Hexum, and in 1984 played a soap star in The Cartier Affair with David Hasselhoff. With Dynasty at the height of its success, Collins began producing and starred in two 1986 CBS miniseries, Sins and Monte Carlo.She also appeared on the cover of and in a twelve-page layout shot by George Hurrell for Playboy magazine at the age of 49, and was often referred to as "the world's No.1 sex symbol" and "the most beautiful woman on Television."
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." 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."
Later career
After the end of Dynasty in 1989, Collins took time off to be with her family. She rejoined her costars for Dynasty: The Reunion, a 1991 miniseries that concluded the series, left with a cliffhanger ending with its abrupt cancellation. In the 1990s Collins made several guest star appearances on series such as Roseanne, The Nanny and Will & Grace while dabbling in films like Decadence and A Midwinter's Tale. She also appeared as the main characters of films such as Mama's Back and Annie: A Royal Adventure! during this period. In 1994, She launched her first and the only exercise video, titled as Joan Collins Personal Workout at the age of 60.
In 1990, Collins played Amanda in a revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives in the West end. In 1991, Collins appeared in Noël Coward's Tonight at 8:30 and played eight different women in a series of one-act plays written by Noël Coward, including an elderly Victorian spinster. In 1992, Collins made her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Coward's Private Lives. She also guest starred in six episodes of Aaron Spelling's prime time soap opera Pacific Palisades in 1997. Collins was chosen as the cover model for the relaunch of the popular celebrity magazine OK! when it changed from being a monthly to a weekly. In the spring of 2000, she completed an American tour of Love Letters with the likes of George Hamilton and Stacey Keach. Additionally, she appeared in a West End production of Over the Moon with Frank Langella in 2000.
In 1999, Collins was casted in the video version of musical theatre show Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She played two roles in this video: a pianist and Mrs. Potiphar, the wife of Egyptian millionaire Potiphar.
In 2000, Collins joined the cast of hollywood film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, prequel of the 1994 Universal Studios film The Flintstones. She played the supporting role Pearl Slaghoople.
In 2001 Collins starred in TV movie These Old Broads with Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine and Elizabeth Taylor.
In 2002 Collins appeared in a limited run on the American daytime soap opera Guiding Light. She also appeared on South African television, depicting the role of South African journalist Jani Allan in a comedic spoof. In 2004, she appeared on a Dutch comedy film Alice in Glamourland (Dutch: Ellis in Glamourland) as a successful writer. Several Months later, she toured the United Kingdom with a revival of the play Full Circle. In 2005 she served as guest host of the popular British quiz show Have I Got News For You.
as Collins in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure (2005)]]
In 2005 actress Alice Krige portrayed Collins in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of Dynasty.
In early 2006, Collins toured the United Kingdom in A Evening With Joan Collins, a one-woman show in which she detailed the highs and lows of her roller coaster career and life, directed by her husband Percy Gibson. In late 2006 she began a tour of North America in the play Legends! with former Dynasty co-star Linda Evans, which concluded in May 2007 after a 30-week, multi-city tour. Collins wrote about her experience on the road with the show in her column in the U.K. Daily Mail; the article was entitled, "Why I'll Never Work With Linda Evans Again."
Collins joined the cast of the hit British television series Footballer's Wives for a limited run as a glamorous magazine mogul, named Eva de Wolffe. She also guest-starred in the BBC series Hotel Babylon in 2006 as a lonely aristocrat desperate for romance.
Collins will appear in an hour-long episode ("They Do It with Mirrors") of the murder-mystery drama Marple in 2009. She'll play Ruth Van Rydock, an old friend of detective Miss Marple .
Personal life
Collins married Irish actor Maxwell Reed on 24 May 24, 1952, and the couple divorced in 1956. She next dated Sydney Chaplin, son of Charlie Chaplin, and later Arthur Loew, Jr. At 26, she embarked on a serious affair with an as-then-unknown Warren Beatty, four years her junior, which would last for two years. They became engaged, Collins being the only woman to whom Beatty would ever propose until Annette Bening in the early 1990s.
Collins married award-winning singer, actor and film composer Anthony Newley on 27 May 1963. She and Newley had two children, a daughter Tara Cynara Newley and a son, Alexander Anthony "Sacha" Newley. Collins and Newley divorced in 1970.
In March 1972 Collins married her third husband Ron Kass, who had been the president of Apple Records during the reign of The Beatles. During their marriage Collins had her third and final child, a daughter, Katyana Kennedy "Katie" Kass. In 1980 Katy was struck by a car in a country lane and even though it was being driven carefully at only 27mph she went into a coma. Collins and her husband bought a trailer and parked it in the hospital parking lot in order to sit beside their daughter day and night. Katyana emerged from her coma a few months later, although it would take years for her to fully recover.
Collins' marriage to Kass ended in divorce in 1983, although they remained very close until his death from cancer in 1986. At the height of Dynasty's popularity on 3 November 1985, Collins married Swedish singer Peter Holm in a ceremony in Las Vegas. They were divorced on 25 August 1987, with the lengthy divorce proceedings garnering significant media attention. For a short period at the end of 1987, Collins was engaged to Dolby Sound electronics mogul, Clive Mandel. Collins left Los Angeles and returned to London where she lived with art dealer Robin Hurlstone for over a decade.
In 2001, Collins met theatrical company manager Percy Gibson, a man 32 years her junior. They married on 17 February 2002 at Claridge's Hotel in London.
Personal politics
After decades of flirting with British politics on 24 May 2004, Collins joined the United Kingdom Independence Party. In October 2004, Collins stated she was not a supporter, but rather a patron of the party.
In early 2005, Collins commented that she had rejoined the Conservative Party, stating, "The Labour Party doesn't care about the British people".
She also continues to contribute as The Spectator Magazine Guest Diarist, something she has done since the late 1990s. Collins also writes occasionally for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and in the USA, Harper's Bazaar. In September 2008 Collins signed on to the Sunday Telegraph as a weekly opinions columnist through the final quarter of the year before leaving to pursue other projects.
She has commented that she was a huge supporter of former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Collins is also a devout monarchist, remaining loyal to the British Royal Family.
Charitable work
Collins has publicly supported several charities for several decades. In 1982 Collins spoke before the US 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 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. In 2003 she became a patron of the Shooting Star Children's Hospice in Great Britain while continuing to support several foster children in India, something she has done for the past 25 years.
Homes
Although a US resident, with a condo in the popular Los Angeles highrise Sierra Towers, as well as a condo on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Collins still maintains British citizenship and owns a home in the fashionable neighborhood of Belgravia in London as well as a villa in La Croix Valmer, a small seaside village outside St. Tropez in the South of France.
Books
Collins has also established herself as an author. In addition to her bestselling novels (Prime Time, Love & Desire & Hate, Infamous, Star Quality, and Misfortune's Daughters) she has written five lifestyle books (The Joan Collins Beauty Book, My Secrets, My Friends' Secrets and Joan's Way: The Art of Living Well) and memoirs (Past Imperfect, Katy: A Fight for Life and Second Act). To date she has sold over 50 million copies of her novels which have been translated into 30 languages.
In September 1991, Joan Collins delivered a 690-page manuscript to Random House. However, the publishing firm later demanded the return of its $1.3 million advance from Collins, claiming she failed to deliver completed books as per her contract. In court, Collins stated that Random House had received her novel, The Ruling Passion, in 1991 plus another novel, Hell Hath No Fury, in September 1992. She also contended that Random House had not provided the editorial assistance she had expected.
Her Random House contract, negotiated by agent Irving Lazar, required that she was to be paid even if her completed manuscripts were not published. On 29 February 1996, a jury determined that she could keep the advance for the first novel, but the publisher did not have to pay for the second manuscript since it was a reworking of the first. Judge Ira Gammerman then ruled that Random House owed Collins $925,000 plus interest for a grand total of $1.3 million. Collins became a heroine to many writers who had been treated badly by their publishers.
The Guinness Book of World Records cites Collins as holding the record for retaining the world's largest unreturned payment for an unpublished manuscript.
Non-fiction
- Past Imperfect: An Autobiography (1978)
- The Joan Collins Beauty Book (1980)
- Katy: A Fight for Life, A Memoir (1982)
- Portraits of a Star (1987)
- My Secrets (1994)
- Health, Youth and Happiness: My Secrets (1995)
- Second Act: An Autobiography (1996)
- My Friends Secrets (1999)
- Joan's Way: Looking Good, Feeling Great (2002)
- The Art of Living Well: Looking Good, Feeling Great (2007)
Fiction
- Prime Time, a novel (1988)
- Love and Desire and Hate, a novel (1990)
- Too Damn Famous, a novel (1995)
- Infamous, a novel (1996)
- Star Quality, a novel (2002)
- Misfortune's Daughters, a novel (2004)
By other authors
- A Touch of Collins by Joe Collins, Columbus Books (1986)
- Joan Collins: The Biography of an Icon by Graham Lord, Orion (2007)
TV adverts
Beginning in the early 50s' Collins appeared as a teenager in a Gas Board Commercial, then in the early 70s, Collins appeared in television and magazine advertisements for British Airways, in which she was referred to as their "Most Frequent Flyer of First Class" a title which she has maintained, having promoted the airline for more than three decades. In 1978, she appeared alongside Leonard Rossiter in a series of Cinzano TV commercials in which the drink was spilled down her character's dress. This was named as one of the Top 100 British Adverts in a Channel 4 poll. In the mid 1980s, Collins appeared in print advertisements for Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Sanyo and was the face of Revlon's Scoundrel perfume. In 1992 she appeared in internationally broadcast television commercials for Marca Bravaria beer while also acting as the face of the perfume Spectacular. Also around this time, she starred in an advert for the Rover Metro. Since 2000 she has appeared in TV ads for UK retailer Marks & Spencer, Olympus cameras, Old Navy and Marriott hotels. In 2007 Collins fronted two high profile advertising campaigns. The first was as the face of skincare company Cellex-C's Ageless 15 Skin Serum. The second was as the face of the British Royal Mail's Christmas campaign. In 2008, Collins took part in an online and print advertising campaign for the Dorchester Hotel in London and a Christmas television commercial, once again, for Marks & Spencer.
Music
Collins sang the title song in the musical The Opposite Sex in 1956, and in 1959 performed It's Great Not To Be Nominated at the Academy Awards with actresses Angela Lansbury and Dana Wynter. In 1962 she sang Lets Not Be in the film The Road to Hong Kong with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Collins teamed up with Peter Sellers and her then-husband Anthony Newley in 1963 to record the album Fool Britannia, which made the UK Top 10. In 1968 she sang a zodiac-themed duet with Newley in Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? called "Chalk & Cheese."
In 1979 Collins sang Fire Down Below in The Bitch, and in a 1983 episode of Dynasty she performed "The Boys in the Back Room," a Marlene Dietrich song from the 1930s film Destry Rides Again. She next sang "The Last Time I Saw Paris" in the TV miniseries Monte Carlo in 1986. In 2001 Collins performed several musical numbers in These Old Broads with Debbie Reynolds and Shirley MacLaine, and that same year appeared in Badly Drawn Boy's music video for "Pissing In The Wind."
Titles
In 1997, Collins was granted the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her contribution to the arts and ongoing charity work.
Awards
- 1957: Motion Picture Magazine Award, Most Promising New Star
- 1978: Saturn Award nomination, Best Actress in a Science Fiction film, Empire of the Ants.
- 1982: Golden Globe nomination, Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), Dynasty.
- 1982: Hollywood Women's Press Club, Female Star of 1982.
- 1982: Golden Apple Award, Female Star of the Year.
- 1983: Emmy Award nomination, Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), Dynasty.
- 1983: Golden Globe, Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), Dynasty.
- 1983: Cable ACE Award nomination, Best Actress in a Drama Series, Faerie Tale Theatre's Hansel and Gretel.
- 1983: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Career Achievement.
- 1984: Soap Opera Digest Award, Outstanding Villainess in a Primetime Drama Series, Dynasty.
- 1984: Golden Globe nomination, Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), Dynasty.
- 1985: People's Choice Award: Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, Dynasty.
- 1985: Soap Opera Digest Award, Outstanding Villainess in a Primetime Drama Series, Dynasty.
- 1985: Golden Globe nomination, Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), Dynasty.
- 1986: Soap Opera Digest Award nomination, Outstanding Villainess in a Primetime Drama Series and Outstanding Actress in a Comic Relief Role in a Primetime Drama Series, Dynasty.
- 1986: Golden Globe nomination, Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), Dynasty.
- 1987: Golden Globe nomination, Best Actress in a TV Series (Drama), Dynasty.
- 1988: Soap Opera Digest Award nomination, Outstanding Villainess in a Primetime Drama Series, Dynasty.
- 1996: OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II for her contribution to the arts and ongoing charity work.
- 1999: Millennium Award of Achievement, Golden Camera Film Council.
- 2001: Golden Nymph, Outstanding Female Actor, Monte Carlo Television Festival.
- 2002: Icon Award, Maxim Magazine UK.
- 2005: Lifetime Achievement Award, San Diego International Film Festival.
- 2008: Legend Award, Los Angeles Italia-Film, Fashion and Arts Festival.
Filmography
Videos released
- The Making of Joan Collins(1981)
- The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Joan Collins (1984)
- In Conversation With Joan Collins (1987)
- Joan Collins Personal Workout: Secrets of Fitness & Beauty (1994)
- Joan Collins--THE PERFECT TEN-HEALTHY DIET(1995)
- Court TV: Random House Vs Joan Collins (1997)
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999)
- Biography - Joan Collins (A & E Home Video)(2000)
Theatrical credits
- 1946, A Doll's House at the Arts Theatre, London.
- 1952, The Seventh Veil at the Queen's Theatre, London.
- 1952, Jassey at the Queens's Theatre, London.
- 1953, The Praying Mantis UK Tour.
- 1953, Claudia and David at the Queen's Theatre, London.
- 1954, The Skin Of Our Teeth at the Queen's Theatre, London.
- 1979, The Last Of Mrs. Cheney at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester.
- 1979, Murder In Mind at the Chichester and Brighton Theatres, Chichester & Brighton.
- 1981, The Last Of Mrs. Cheney at the Cambridge Theatre, London.
- 1990-1991, Private Lives at the Aldwych Theatre, London.
- 1991-1992, Private Lives at the Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway, New York.
- 2000, Love Letters USA Tour.
- 2001, Over The Moon at the Old Vic Theatre, London.
- 2004, Full Circle UK Tour.
- 2006, An Evening with Joan Collins UK Tour.
- 2006-2007, Legends North American Tour.
Television credits
External links
- Joan Collins in Glamour Land
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