JOAN 90

Boss of gloss has become an icon

- ANNA BURNSIDE

IT’S hard to believe but Joan Collins is 90 years old today. 

The star is a living history of the 20th and early 21st-centuries. She was a starlet under Hollywood’s studio system. Today she’s still posting on Instagram and appearing on Good Morning Britain.

She has reinvented herself with the decades – while never giving up on high-octane glamour.

Many of the trends adopted by much younger celebrities, from writing lifestyle books to making the most of her equally glossy sister, were started by Joan.

She was born in London and studied classical theatre at Rada before being signed to the Rank Organisation, a British film studio. She played everything from a juvenile delinquent to a sultry Egyptian princess.

That role, in Land of the Pharaohs, caught the eye of American studio 20th Century Fox. They tied the young Joan into a seven-year contract.