Tony Newley and Joan Collins
They probably should never have married – but sometimes the wrong choices are more fun than the right ones...
In early Sixties Hollywood, Joan Collins was known as ‘the British Elizabeth Taylor’. She was already a showbusiness veteran, having been a Rank starlet from the age of 17 and while her films were mainly B-movies, the Hollywood stars who escorted her were A-grade – from Harry Belafonte to Warren Beatty. Already Joan was as famous for being seductively, gorgeously herself, as she was for her career.
She was stepping out with Robert Wagner when they decided to go and see the hot new musical from Britain – Stop the World I Want To Get Off. It was co-written by Anthony Newley – who also directed and starred in it. Tony had been in showbusiness even longer than Joan – he played The Artful Dodger in David Lean's Oliver
Twist and was a pop heart-throb, with several chart hits.
Joan went backstage to meet this intriguing fellow Londoner who had the talent to succeed at anything – acting, singing, writing, directing. His charm met her sex appeal. No wonder they fell in love. And of course, they shared a sense of humour – he called her, “a half-Jewish princess from Bayswater via Sunset Boulevard.” she called him, “a half-Jewish Cockney git.” They seemed the perfect glamour couple – but they each had a complicated back story... Joan had already had a disastrous first marriage to actor Maxwell Reed. Despite her sexy image, 18-year-old Joan had been a total innocent. Reed raped her on their first date and she felt so guilty she agreed to marry him – he was 14 years her senior. The marriage never worked and she separated from him on her 21st birthday. Now aged 27, Joan wanted to have children and a proper family.
LITTLE MAN
Tony had also been married before, to Tiller-girl Ann Lynn, but it hadn't stopped his very roving eye. The working-class son of a single mum, there was always something of the boy who never grew up at the heart of Tony Newley, searching for the father he never knew. Perhaps Joan should have taken more notice of the fact that the character he created and played in Stop the World was called Little Man – and also that despite being married Little Man had quite a few affairs. Tony did confess to her that he had never been faithful so far. And indeed she broke off their romance when she was sure he was having a fling. In true Joan style, she took up with the ultimate heart-throb, Terence Stamp. This led Tony to bombard her with apologies and flowers – turning all
his considerable charm on to make her change her mind, culminating in him going down on one knee and proposing – saying he would try really hard to be faithful. They married a week later and daughter Tara was born the same year, with Alexander following a couple of years later.
The couple lived a glamorous life on both sides of the Atlantic. Joan largely gave up filming to concentrate on her longed-for children. Tony was busy writing, performing and pursuing a Hollywood film career. But faithful? No chance. One of his more famous conquests was Barbra Streisand. Joan became suspicious when she turned up to his 36th birthday party and sang, “Newley – people who need Newley,” to the song People.
THE BITTER END
Then in 1969, Tony made a very autobiographical film of his promiscuous sex-life: Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? It was as though he wanted his marriage to self-destruct. He persuaded Joan to appear in it and even their young children. Described by one critic as, “self-indulgent as a burp,” when Joan watched the film she felt hurt and used. She’d had enough.She took revenge as only she knew how – by having an affair with Ryan O'Neal. Tony and Joan divorced in 1971.
They both said bitter things about each other. She claimed his love for
her had been, “as shallow as a pan of water”. While he said, “To the unwashed public, Joan Collins is a star. But to those who know her, she's a commodity who would sell her own bowel movement.” Thankfully, they mellowed with age – even working together on two Noel Coward plays for the BBC in 1991. This was helped on Joan's part by finally achieving super-stardom as Alexis Carrington in Dynasty in the Eighties and, after two more dodgy husbands, meeting Percy Gibson her ‘soulmate’ who she has been happily married to since 2002. Tony also had another failed marriage – and his career encompassed success as a Las Vegas nightclub performer, numerous song credits including Candy Man, Goldfinger and Feeling Good, and a stint in EastEnders. He too found happiness with dress designer Gina Fratini – whom he had known since the Fifties. They lived together until his death. Gina said, “We came back together at the perfect time, but it ended too soon.” He died in 1999, aged just 67, from renal cancer.
Son Alexander (Sacha) recently chose to write a memoir with some eyepopping details, including claims about his father's love of very young women – claims rubbished by both Joan and his sister Tara. He also said, “My father was one of those people who could walk into a room and change the voltage... I grew up the son of amazing creative personalities at an amazing time.”