Joan Collins

23rd May 1998 was a very special day. Not only is it the birthday of one of my best friends but it was also the day that Joan Collins, one of the last remaining old-style movies stars, reached the ripe old age of 65. Yes, that's right, Alexis has passed the age of retirement, and she can still act most of these upstarts off a court-room floor, as Ransom House and Peter Holm have recently found to their cost.
Many will assume that our Joanie sprang fully formed from the shoulder pads of Alexis Carrington one memorable day in 1981 when she appeared in court against Blake Carrington on trial for the manslaughter of her gay son's lover - are you following this? But what you have to remember is that when she made her triumphant return to Hollywood she was already, at 48, well 'past it' and written off as just another old star suitable only for prime time cameos. But Joanie was never one to play by the rules.
On 23rd May 1933 (no matter what she or anyone else says, that IS her date of birth) Joan Henrietta Collins was born to Joe and Elsa; he was a Showbiz Agent in partnership with the legendary Lew (now Lord) Grade; she was a retired dance instructress. Looking down at his first-born Joe pronounced that 'she looks like half a pound of scrag end.' Never was a first impression so inaccurate.
Not only were Joan's parents steeped in showbiz but so, too, was her grandmother, Hettie, who taught the pre-school brat dance routines, songs, sketches and tricks on every occasion, culminating in the stage debut of Ms Joan Collins as a fairy in Why The Fairies Cried, at the age of three. The arrival of the Second World War and a sister, Jackie, did nothing to dampen the acting ambitions of Joan and at 12 she joined the theatrical school Cone-Ripman. Ms Collins got her first 'professional' engagement, playing a boy, in Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Arts Theatre in Charing Cross. In the fullness of time RADA beckoned and Joanie duly steeped herself in the student life with the likes of David McCullum, Diane Cilento and Gerald Harper, few of whom can claim the high profile staying power of Ms Collins.
A year after entering RADA Joan was offered the lead in a film version of Lady Godiva Rides Again followed swiftly by a part in The Woman's Angle , as a Greek serving wench, and in Judgement Deferred. Pretty impressive for an actress that had only done a year at RADA. Then Rank offered her a contract and a juvenile lead in I Believe In You, and Joanie, aged 18, had to give up RADA or the film. Rank and the film won out and 1952 was the start of everything. Everything included meeting her first husband, 32 year old Maxwell Reed, and, inbetween filming, notching up a prodigious number of appearances in plays around London. By 1953 she was wed to Reed, discovered that he was a self-centred bully and, after just 18 months together, left him when he tried to insist on watching her in bed with other guys. Joan never was to get good at picking husbands.
But, despite her appalling taste in husbands Joan's film career soared ever upward as Hollywood beckoned and she found herself playing a variety of 'bimbo' roles in various films whilst disporting herself around glitzy locations.

First published in QX Magazine
© Paul Towers 23/5/1998