Joan Collins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dame Joan Collins DBE
Collins in 2010
Born	Joan Henrietta Collins (1933-05-23) 23 May 1933 (age 92) Paddington, London, England
Occupation	Actress author columnist
Years active	1951–present
Spouse(s)	Maxwell Reed ​ ​ (m. 1952; div. 1956)​ Anthony Newley ​ ​ (m. 1963; div. 1971)​ Ronald S. Kass ​ ​ (m. 1972; div. 1983)​ Peter Holm ​ ​ (m. 1985; div. 1987)​ Percy Gibson ​ (m. 2002)​
Children	3, including Tara and Alexander
Relatives	Jackie Collins (sister)
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Dame Joan Henrietta Collins DBE (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. 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 stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

In 1981, she landed the role of Alexis Colby, the vengeful and scheming ex-wife of John Forsythe's character, in the 1980s soap opera Dynasty, winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1982; she is credited with the success of Dynasty, which was the most-watched television series in the United States during the 1984-85 broadcast season. Collins also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983 for career achievement.

In 2015, Collins was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to charity. Since the late 1970s, Collins has written several books (including beauty and autobiographical books). In 1988, she published her first novel, Prime Time, and she has continued to publish various kinds of writing. A member of the Conservative Party, Collins was invited to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in April 2013.

Early life

Joan Collins 1956

Collins was born in Paddington, London, and brought up in Maida Vale, the daughter of Elsa Collins (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. Her father, a native of South Africa, was Jewish, and her British mother was Anglican. She had two younger siblings, Jackie (1937–2015), a novelist, and Bill, a property agent. She was educated at the Francis Holland School, an independent day school for girls in London and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

Collins signed to The Rank Organisation at the age of 17 and had small roles in the British films Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) and The Woman's Angle (1952) before taking on a supporting role in Judgment Deferred (1952). Collins 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 (1956), Sea Wife, (1957) and The Wayward Bus (1957). After starring in the epic film Esther and the King (1960), she was released on request from her contract with 20th Century Fox.

Collins appeared only in a few film roles in the 1960s, notably starring in The Road to Hong Kong (1962), and Warning Shot (1967). Collins also appeared in the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" as Edith Keeler (1967), and Subterfuge (1968). Collins began to take on local roles again back in Britain in the 1970s, appearing in the films Revenge (1971), Quest for Love (1971), Tales from the Crypt (1972) Fear in the Night (1972) and Dark Places (1973), as well as Tales That Witness Madness (1973), Empire of the Ants (1977), which earned her a Saturn Award nomination, The Stud (1978), Zero to Sixty (1978), and Game for Vultures (1979). From 1981 to 1989, she 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 (2000) and the TV movie These Old Broads (2001) 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 (2011–2013), The Royals (2014–2018), Benidorm (2014–2017) and American Horror Story: Apocalypse (2018). Her first starring film role since the 1980s was The Time of Their Lives (2017), and she has also appeared in various independent films, which includes the critically acclaimed Gerry (2018).

She is set to portray Wallis Simpson in a movie under a working title "The Bitter End". Filming on the movie will begin in May 2025, take place in London and Paris.

Personal life

Collins has been married five times. The first time was to Irish actor Maxwell Reed. They married on 24 May 1952 and divorced in 1956.

Joan Collins

Collins married award-winning singer, actor and movie 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. He was the president of Apple Records during the time of the Beatles. During their marriage Collins had her third and final child, a daughter, Katyana Kennedy Kass. Collins's marriage to Kass ended in divorce in 1983.

On 3 November 1985, Collins married Swedish singer Peter Holm in a ceremony in Las Vegas. They were divorced on 25 August 1987.

In 2001 Collins met theatrical company manager Percy Gibson, 32 years her junior. They married on 17 February 2002 at Claridge's Hotel in London. They renewed their vows in 2009. The pair were contestants on the Christmas Day edition of the ITV game show All Star Mr. & Mrs. in 2009.

Joan Collins - Monte-Carlo Television Festival 2012

Collins has homes in London, Los Angeles, New York and the South of France, describing her life as being "that of a gypsy".

As of 2013, Collins has three grandchildren.

Collins maintains residences in London, Los Angeles, New York City, and France, describing her life in 2010 as being "that of a gypsy".

Collins's younger sister was Jackie Collins, a pioneer of romantic novels, who died in September 2015. Collins was told only two weeks before her sister's death of the breast cancer she'd had for over six years.

Charitable work

Ivana Trump wearing Lloyd Klein with Joan Collins

Ben Gazzara as Paul Bryan and Joan Collins from the television program Run For Your Life

Joan Collins Farley Granger, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing 1956

Joan Collins Drive Hard, Drive Fast 1973

Joan Collins and Ray Milland The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing 1956

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 had 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 25 years. Collins serves her former school, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, as the Honorary President of the RADA Associates.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

• 1946, A Doll's House - Arts Theatre, London
• 1952, The Seventh Veil - Q Theatre, London
• 1952, Jassy - Q Theatre, London
• 1953, The Praying Mantis - UK Tour
• 1953, Claudia and David - Q Theatre, London
• 1954, The Skin of Our Teeth - Q Theatre, London
• 1980-81, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney - Chichester Festival Theatre/Cambridge Theatre, London
• 1981, Murder in Mind - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford/Theatre Royal, Brighton
• 1990–91, Private Lives - Theatre Royal, Bath/Aldwych Theatre, London
• 1992, Private Lives - Broadhurst Theatre, New York City
• 2000, Love Letters - US Tour
• 2001, Over the Moon - The Old Vic, London
• 2004, Full Circle - UK Tour
• 2006, An Evening with Joan Collins - UK Tour
• 2006–07, Legends - North American Tour
• 2010, One Night with Joan - Feinsteins at the Regency, New York City
• 2010–11, Dick Whittington - Birmingham Hippodrome
• 2011, One Night with Joan - Australian Tour
• 2011–14, One Night with Joan - Leicester Square Theatre, London
• 2013, One Night with Joan - UK Tour
• 2016, Joan Collins Unscripted - UK Tour
• 2019, Joan Collins Unscripted - London Palladium/UK Tour
• 2021, Joan Collins is Unapologetic - UK Tour
• 2023, Behind the Shoulder Pads - UK Tour

Awards and nominations

Images for kids

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  Joan Collins with Dynasty co-stars Stephanie Beacham and Emma Samms in London, 2009

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  Collins at The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection Fashion Show in 2010

See also

In Spanish: Joan Collins para niños