Joan Collins was a serious drama student until a movie studio offered her thousands to become a starlet and she never looked back.

Joan earned the nickname “The British Open” because she slept around, before she settled down to the quiet domesticity of motherhood. She would have given up on acting completely had her husbands not left her high and dry. She was forced to go back to work to pay the bills. At 40 she was on the cover of Playboy, and became an international icon playing cougar and uber-bitch Alexis Colby on top soap Dynasty. Since then she’s earned a crust writing bonk-busters and books explaining how to look as good as she does.