Joan Collins Biography

In a nutshell

She's an OBE with countless stage and screen roles to her name and at the grand old age of 77 is on her fifth marriage to a man well over half her age. How cool is Joan Collins!
Young Joan was seemingly destined for stardom, born to a theatrical agent father and treading the London boards as young as nine years old. She went on to study at RADA before being signed by 20th Century Fox as their answer to MGM's Elizabeth Taylor (she did bear a striking resemblance) still only nineteen years old. She made her Hollywood debut in director Howard Hawks 'Land of the Pharaohs' in 1955 and went on the make appearances in dozens of other films alongside Hollywood glitterati such as Richard Burton and Paul Newman. But it was her role as 'super-bitch' Alexis Carrington Colby, the villainous, velvet-toned ex-wife of tycoon Blake that really catapulted Joan to fame. (It was always shoulder-pads at dawn for her and rival Krystal -who always seemed a wimp by comparison). Her performance turned Dynasty from a struggling soap saga into a hit big enough to take on celluloid rival Dallas and Joan won a Golden Globe Award for her effort in 1983 (after being nominated countless times). Never one shy of flaunting her assets, the same year Joan even made an appearance in Playboy Magazine (aged 47) but looking remarkably younger, a talent she puts down to skin care and make-up rather than, ahem, surgical intervention or Botox. Over the next decade or so, the success of Dynasty propelled Joan to star in numerous shows on stage and screen both in Britain and the US where she was by now a household name. Over here, her TV appearances include Footballers Wives, Miss Marple, Hotel Babylon and a memorable stint guest presenting Have I Got News For You. In 2009 she also fronted an ITV reality show called Joan Does Glamour where she set out to whip frumpy English women into adopting a more sophisticated outlook (which basically involved wearing hats and lip-gloss at all times). She's also made numerous appearances on Broadway and the London stage, which is where she met her fifth and current husband Percy Gibson, a theatrical manager 32 years her junior. At their wedding, when asked about the age difference she was quoted as retorting 'if he dies, he dies'. If all this wasn't enough Joan has also somehow found time to pen six best-selling novels and five' lifestyle' books generally around the theme of how to look younger the Joan Collins way (oxygen tank?). Her last stage outing was her 2009 one-woman tour A Evening With Joan Collins, which she detailed the highs and lows of her roller coaster career and life. Joan Collins - Biography from (http://www.talktalk.co.uk/celebrity/biography/person/joan-collins/254)

People Biography

Sunday, September 25, 2011