Hollywood ‘Bad Girl’ Joan Collins Began as a Good Girl in London
The actress and memoirist on her mother’s influence and her bond with her late sister, novelist Jackie Collins
Joan Collins is an award-winning English actress best known for her roles in TV’s “Dynasty” and “The Royals” as well as in the films “The Opposite Sex,” “The Bitch” and “The Time of Their Lives.” Her latest book is “Behind the Shoulder Pads: Tales I Tell My Friends” (Permuted). She spoke with Marc Myers.
My parents were very protective. As soon as World War II began in 1939, they whisked Jackie, my baby sister, and me off to Bognor Regis, a town on the southern coast of England. Months later, we returned to our London flat, when my parents thought everything was safe. Then came the Blitz.
On the first night of bombings, our nanny woke me. I grabbed my Shirley Temple doll and my teddy bear, and we all descended the nearby Tube station to the platforms far below.
Bunks had been built for us, and the atmosphere was jolly. People played harmonicas and everyone sang. After, I was evacuated from London 12 times and placed in different homes. School was tough. As a new girl, I was bullied.
Our London flat was in an older, eight-story Victorian mansion block. One morning, after emerging from the Tube following a bombing, we saw that our flat had been destroyed. All our possessions were gone, including my Shirley Temple doll.
My father, Joe, was a theatrical agent. He was quite strict but very funny when he wanted to be. He was the boss at home, and what he said went. He never abused us in any way, but when he shouted, we were scared.
My mother, Elsa, was old-school. She cared only about her family and her home, and she protected us all. She had been a dancer before I was born, and my father’s mother had been a stage dancer. She encouraged my interest in performing.
Even as teenagers, we weren’t allowed to see films with violence or anything that might upset us or be a bad influence. We saw only musicals. They were enough to activate our imaginations.
Jackie and I were ambitious. I wanted to be a serious stage actress. I was star struck and kept a big scrapbook of film stars’ photos. They were all so beautiful, elegant, funny and talented. Jackie started writing fiction at about age 10 and announced she was going to be a novelist.
I first performed in an after-school dance program when I was about 3 and was in a play called “Why the Fairies Cried.” I received my first good review in a local paper: “Joan Collins makes a very believable fairy.”
Collins with her younger sister, future novelist Jackie Collins
After leaving school at 15, I attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I also began modeling in women’s magazines and was discovered by a talent agent, who got me small roles in a few films. Those caught the eye of J. Arthur Rank, the head of the Rank Organization, Britain’s largest film studio.
In 1951, they asked me to do a series of screen tests for “I Believe in You,” an upcoming film. I played hooky from RADA, but Kenneth Barnes, the head of the school, found out.
After I was cast, I asked for two or three months off to do the film. He said, “You can either be a stage actress or a film actress. Either you finish your theater studies over the next 18 months or you have to leave.” So at 17, I left to become a film actress.
When I was 20, my Rank contract was sold to 20th Century Fox for seven years. When I arrived in Hollywood, I didn’t know a soul. The studio put me into a hotel and rented me a little Ford. They told me what to wear, where to go, where to eat and whom to date.
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| Collins at her Beverly Hills, L.A., home in 1995. PHOTO: EDDIE SANDERSON |
The mid-’50s in Los Angeles was fantastic. Everything seemed to be in vivid color compared with Britain, which was often gray and dreary. A turning point for me in terms of visibility was starring in “The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing” in 1955, with Ray Milland and Farley Granger.
As for “Dynasty,” I was born to play Alexis Carrington Colby. Being cast for the series’ second season, in 1981, was a life-changing role. I starred for 10 years. Nolan Miller designed my wardrobe, and we studied every outfit worn by Princess Diana in the fashion magazines. Then he copied them for my character, shoulder pads and all.
Today, my husband, Percy, and I divide our time between homes in London, L.A. and Provence, France.
In London, we have a cozy apartment in a modernized 18th-century building. I’m in the sitting room now, and the fire is on. Our place in France is very outdoorsy and very Provençal. In L.A., we’re in a modern three-bedroom apartment with a pool.
Jackie’s passing in 2015 was painful. We were so close. I have all the letters she wrote me while I was in Hollywood and she was in London. The letters are in her lovely handwriting, on pale blue air-mail paper. Her three daughters have my letters to Jackie.
I still remember Jackie crying after her toys were lost during the Blitz and doing my best to comfort her. We were always best friends.
