| Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress and bestselling author. She is most widely known for her role as Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan in the 1980s soap opera Dynasty. Collins was born in London to Joseph William "Will" Collins and Elsa Bessant. She has one full sister, the author Jackie Collins, and a brother Bill Collins. She was educated at the Francis Holland School and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) with actors such as Sir Roger Moore and Sir Michael Caine. At the age of 17 Collins was signed to the J. Arthur Rank Film Company. In 1951, she made her feature debut as a beauty contest entrant in Lady Godiva Rides Again. In the early 1950s, she did double duty by posing for pin-up photos and acting in B-movies in Britain. After mild success, she was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1954 as their answer to Elizabeth Taylor. Collins became known more for her personal affairs with leading men such as Warren Beatty than her on-screen achievements. After losing such high-profile roles as Cleopatra Collins continued to work in films and occasionally in television. Her notable guest appearances on American TV during the 1960s included Star Trek "The City on the Edge of Forever" , Batman , Mission: Impossible and Police Woman. In the 1970s, Collins starred in the film versions of her sister Jackie Collins' romantic novels The Stud and The Bitch. Both were smash hits in England, becoming the most profitable films since the James Bond series. Collins' career changed dramatically when she was offered a role in the then-struggling prime time TV soap opera Dynasty (1981 - 1989) by producer Aaron Spelling. The role of Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan successfully relaunched Collins as a powerful sex symbol and icon of independence in her late 40s. Her performance helped the show beat main rival Dallas to become the No. 1 U.S. TV show in the early 1980s, and she became the highest-paid actress on television at the time. Dynasty was shown in more than 80 countries and is still being re-run today around the world. She also appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine at the age of 50 to further establish herself as a sex symbol despite the then-popular cultural opinion that older women could not be sexually attractive. Collins married British screen icon Maxwell Reed, whom she divorced in 1956 on her twenty-third birthday after he attempted to sell her to an Arab sheik. During this time she carried on much-talked-about romances with Conrad Hilton Jr., Dennis Hopper, Ryan O'Neal, Terence Stamp, Sydney Chaplin, and Warren Beatty. The gossip mills set ablaze when Collins walked away from Hollywood and a successful career in the early 1960s to marry Anthony Newley, an award winning singer, actor and film composer. With Newley she had two children, a daughter, Tara and a son, Sacha. In 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. In 1985, Collins became a bride for the fourth time when she married Swedish singer Peter Holm in a quickie ceremony in Las Vegas. The marriage lasted a year and the divorce proceedings lasted just as long with a media circus ensuing. Collins left Los Angeles and returned to London where she lived with much younger art dealer Robin Hurlstone for over a decade. In 2001 Collins and Hurlstone ended their relationship and Collins struck up a romance with theatrical company manager Percy Gibson, a man 32 years her junior. They married on February 17, 2002 at Claridge's Hotel in London.
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