5 Things You Never Knew About Joan Collins
Joan Collins turns 92 on May 23, 2025, and remains one of the most dazzling and enduring stars of film and television. With a career spanning more than seven decades, Collins has earned numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People’s Choice Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. She was even nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her unforgettable role as Alexis Colby on Dynasty. Beyond acting, she is an accomplished author and columnist, and in 1983, she earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In honor of her birthday, let’s learn some interesting facts about her:
1 She replaced Marilyn Monroe in a major Hollywood role
20th Century Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection
In 1955, Collins was still a fresh face in Hollywood when she landed the role of Evelyn Nesbit in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. But what made the casting even more buzzworthy was the fact that she replaced none other than Marilyn Monroe. Monroe, at age 29, was considered too old to play a teenage showgirl. Collins, who was just 22 at the time, stepped into the part and delivered a breakout performance.
2 Her first husband tried to sell her
Ron Case/Getty Images
Collins’ real-life drama sometimes rivaled the scripts of Dynasty. At just 18, she married actor Maxwell Reed, but the marriage quickly turned toxic. Only seven months in, she discovered Reed had tried to sell her to other men, according to Amomama. She later called the relationship one of the darkest times of her life. On her 21st birthday, she left him for good.
3 She nearly didn’t return to Dynasty after a salary standoff
Everett Collection
Collins made Alexis Colby the character everyone loved to hate, but during the 1985 season premiere, Alexis was mysteriously missing because Collins had refused to return until producers met her salary demands, says Yahoo. It was a risky move, especially since the previous season ended with the “Moldavian Massacre,” where all the characters were shot. The writers could’ve easily killed Alexis off. But she stood her ground, negotiated a raise to $60,000 per episode, and came back the very next week.
4 She has an action figure thanks to Star Trek
Paramount/Everett Collection
Before she was Alexis, Collins played a sweet social worker named Edith Keeler in the classic 1967 Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever.” The episode became one of the most beloved in the franchise’s history, and her character even got the ultimate pop culture honor: a doll and an action figure made in her likeness.
5 She married her fifth husband at 68, and they’re still together
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Love hasn’t always been easy for Collins, but she finally found her match in theater manager Percy Gibson. They met while she was starring in a touring production of Love Letters, and even though he was 36 and she was 68, the chemistry was undeniable. The two married in 2002, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. When asked about the age gap, she famously quipped, says the Guardian, “If he dies, he dies.”
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