Why I’m having the time of my life at 83

GLAMOUR QUEEN: Joan in stunning form at a Hollywood party last year. Inset, with Pauline Collins in new film The Time Of Their Lives and, top, with co-stars John Forsythe and Linda Evans in the 1985 series of Dynasty sexuality, her beauty and her cleverness to rise to the top of the heap.

“By that time I understood what it was all about. I put in so many hours on fittings, going out shopping and the clothes. When I first saw what they wanted me to wear, I refused. They wanted me in a tweed suit with a Peter Pan collar.

“I said, ‘This woman is a society jetsetter and I want to wear the latest fashions from Paris, Yves St Laurent or Pierre Cardin’ – big shoulders, tiny waists and big hair.

“I had gained much experience by the time I did Dynasty and that came in useful. I did my own make-up, which I had been doing since the age of 18. I had a great make-up man in Hollywood called Whitey Snyder – he worked with Marilyn Monroe – who taught me to apply it properly.”

And there was very definitely life after Dynasty. Not least a burgeoning career as a writer. Joan published her first volume of autobiography, Past Imperfect, in 1985 and followed that up with a second, Passion For Life, at the age of 79.

She delivered her last novel The St Tropez Lonely Hearts Club two years later, when she also became a Dame Commander of the British Empire.

MEANWHILE she’s happily married to her fifth husband, theatre producer Percy Gibson, who at 51 is 32 years her junior – “this one is a success!” – and has never been more in demand for her sellout one-woman theatre show.

And Joan is refreshingly realistic about the ageing process. “What did Goldie Hawn say in The First Wives Club? ‘First you play a babe, then you are a district attorney and then you are Driving Miss Daisy.’

“In my case that’s almost true. One of my first big movies was Girl On The Red Velvet Swing (1955) – I was on the swing and a babe because I was very young and pretty. And from that moment you are growing up all the time and there has to be an acceptance of it. You will never be as young again as you are today or look as good as you did in your 20s. It’s a fact of life.

“You become a mother, you become a grandmother and the parts reflect that. But you have to believe in yourself. Self-esteem comes from within and you cannot be healthy without a certain amount of self-discipline.

“Do not sit around all day and eat chocolates and doughnuts. All of the women I know who are long-time survivors exercise and watch their diet.”

Joan worked in Hollywood when it was still full of big-time, old-fashioned stars such as Gene Kelly, Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis. Her favourite was the late Paul Newman: “An absolute gentleman,” she says. “And the great thing about them all is that they were true stars in every way.”

As is Joan Collins: still having the time of her life… The Time Of Their Lives is released on Friday.