Joan Collins

British actress (born ca. 1930), most famous for her role as Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter on Dynasty and notorious, body-baring roles in two movies based on novels written by her sister Jackie Collins, The Stud and The Bitch.

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The following tropes have popped up in the life and career of Joan Collins:

• Biography: Joan has written two autobiogaphies, Past Imperfect and Second Act, both of which should be taken with varying grains of salt. The former book was notoriously edited for U.S. publication to delete passages detailing her more scandalous doings, but at Joan's insistence was re-released in a new, unexpurgated edition after she hit it big with Dynasty.
• Career Resurrection: At one point in the late 1970s, Joan had to apply for California unemployment benefits. When she could get work again, it was generally in terrible movies based on novels by her sister Jackie or bottom-drawer giant-creature schlock. Then Joan's daughter Katy had a near-fatal accident. And then...along came Dynasty!!
• The Eighties: Thanks to Dynasty, Joan is indeliby associated with this decade.
• Mama Bear: Joan is exceptionally dedicated to her children. In the early 1980s, she exhibited this trope when she fought metaphorically tooth and nail to bring her daughter Katy back from the brink of death after a near-crippling brain injury.
• Opera Gloves: Joan has always been a great glove fan and is often seen wearing gloves of all lengths (including, of course, over-the-elbow opera gloves) both in her various film and television roles and in real life. On one occasion, she gave the gloves she was wearing to a fan who was admiring them!
• Pimped-Out Dress: Alexis in Dynasty. Joan has delighted in dressing to the nines and beyond for public events.
• Playboy: Joan made a memorable cover appearance (with accompanying pictorial) in the December 1983 issue, being at that time probably the oldest woman ever to pose (semi-)nude for the magazine.
• Pretty in Mink: Wore loads of fur wraps as a younger star, in addition to the loads of furs in Dynasty.
• Really Gets Around: Joan had this reputation in The Fifties when she was a starlet in British cinema and Hollywood, to the extent that she got the nickname "The British Open". Subverted in the decades since, in that by all accounts she's remained faithful to her various husbands and lovers as long as those relationships were going propositions.
• Shoulders of Doom: Joan made these iconic in her role as Alexis on Dynasty, and was often photographed wearing them in real life also.