Born 1933

Gallery | Other Galleries | Movie Rarities In Stock | Advertise Here
Tales of the Unexpected Series 1 Review | Series 2 Review | Series 3 Review
The Stud / The Bitch | The Monster (AKA I Don't Want to Be Born)

Great Star

Daughter of a London theatrical booking agent, Joan Henrietta Collins made her showbiz bow in a production of The Doll's House -- in a male role. She was 9 years old then, and it would be the last time there would be any doubt as to her gender.

With the sort of glamorous countenance that prompted people to ask "why aren't you in movies?", the 5ft 6 Collins first appeared before the cameras in a small role as a beauty contestant in Lady Godiva Rides Again (1953).

She made an auspicious American debut as an Egyptian temptress in Land of the Pharoahs (1955).

This assignment led to a contract with 20th Century-Fox, where despite a few good dramatic parts (Girl on the Red Velvet Swing [1955] in particular) and an adroit comic characterization in Rally Round the Flag, Boys (1958), she was written off by critics as decorative but nothing more.

She was perilously close to "perennial starlet" status in the 1960s, and by the 1970s was the uncrowned queen of "B" pictures.

Offscreen she cut quite a swath through the tabloid headlines; if her autobiography, Past Imperfect is to be believed, she dallied with virtually every male actor in Hollywood. She has been married five times. Her first husband, the actor Maxwell Reed, tried to sell her to an Arab sheik for £10,000, just seven months after their wedding.