"I had a very tough time all my life. As an actress, when you're very young and pretty, you're not taken seriously as an actress.“Vivien Leigh told me this.She said, ‘People only started to think I could act when I started to lose my looks.’"She added her father, who was an agent, told her not to be an actress because she would be "finished" by her mid-20s.“Well daddy, I proved you wrong,” Joan said.Joan started her career aged nine, before going on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.She began starring in British films back in 1951 and went to Hollywood under contract to 20th Century Fox in 1955.In 1981, she landed her most iconic role as scene-stealer Alexis Colby in the soap opera Dynasty.Joan quickly became an.