Terry Prone: Despite the differences, Joan Collins was born to play Wallis Simpson

Collins’s exemplary control of her own health and self-sufficiency could not be in greater contrast with the luxurious imprisonment of Wallis Simpson

Joan Collins has just finished making a movie about Wallis Simpson, the American woman who caused the abdication of an English king.

It’s easy to be vicious in old age. Trust me on this. Lived experience. It’s much less easy to be cheerful in old age. (See above.) But to combine viciousness and cheerfulness at this life stage is an almost unique achievement, best exemplified by actor/writer Joan Collins.

Joan Collins is 93. She and Shirley MacLaine, a year younger, are the survivors of four stars who appeared in a 2001 TV movie, These Old Broads. The others were Elizabeth Taylor, who died at 79, and Debbie Reynolds, who died at 84.