Joan Collins's Real Name: Joan Henrietta Collins

Quick answer: The actress is known professionally as Joan Collins. Biography.com and Britannica independently identify her as Joan Henrietta Collins and date her birth to May 23, 1933, in London. Britannica also uses the form Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (Biography.com; Britannica).

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Joan Collins. Biography.com says actress Joan Henrietta Collins was born on May 23, 1933, in London, England, the eldest child of Elsa Bessant Collins and Joseph William Collins, a talent agent. Britannica independently gives the form Dame Joan Henrietta Collins and dates the same London birth to May 23, 1933, saying she was raised in London as the oldest of three children of a theatrical agent and a former dancer.

Career highlights

Biography.com says she landed her first film role in the 1951 movie Lady Godiva Rides Again. Britannica independently says she appeared, in an uncredited role, in Lady Godiva Rides Again (also called Bikini Baby), and that the following year, in 1952, she received her first film credit in Judgement Deferred. Britannica dates her best-known television role, Alexis Carrington on Dynasty, to 1981–89, and also names later films The Stud (1978) and The Bitch (1979), adapted from novels by her sister Jackie. Biography.com independently says that for the next three decades she punctuated a series of B-movie roles with frequent television appearances, that she was called to an audition for Dynasty in 1981 and took the role of Alexis Carrington Colby, that she won a Golden Globe in 1983 and received an Emmy nomination for the show, and that she again appeared as Colby in the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. Biography.com says that after Dynasty she continued to act and write. Biography.com also says that in December 2014 she was named a Dame Commander and that in March 2015 Prince Charles bestowed the honorary title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for charitable work; both wordings are recorded as that source gives them.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Joan Collins or Joan Henrietta Collins are looking for the same London-born actress, later known for playing Alexis Carrington on Dynasty. Biography.com and Britannica independently support the fuller name.