Dame Joan Collins is a true British original: an actress, writer, and producer who says the key to her impressive longevity is a "passion for life." If anyone has managed to keep her spirits up during this testing year, it's Collins, who spent the summer in Saint Tropez, France living her best (socially distanced) life. She's probably best known for her Dynasty role as tack-sharp, super-glamorous businesswoman Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan - to give the character her full name – but here are 10 times Collins was equally fabulous in real life.

1. During her time on Dynasty, she lobbied for equal pay with her male co-star John Forsyth – and almost succeeded.

Recalling how she tried to tackle the gender pay gap in the late '80s, Collins said in 2017: "After I'd been on Dynasty for two or three years, and I was on the cover of every magazine and I was quite popular, I asked for a raise and it was totally dismissed out of hand and [they] said, 'You can't have a raise, the guy who plays Blake, John Forsyth, he has to get more than you, a lot more.'

"I could never find out how much more, but I found out towards the end," she continued. "On the last series, they finally gave me a raise. I became a very high paid actress but they only put me in eight out of the 12 episodes so I lost money – and he still got $5,000 a week more than I did."

2. When she won a Golden Globe award in 1983 for her performance in Dynasty, she thanked Sophia Loren for turning down the role of Alexis.

During a pitch-perfect acceptance speech, she also made a playful joke about the show's producer Aaron Spelling, and noted self-deprecatingly that the last award she'd won had been "Most Promising New Actress of 1957." Clutching her Globes trophy, she added: "It's taken me a while, but I'm really happy to have it!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0moVcqbKF8

3. She once turned down a dinner date with Frank Sinatra.

Collins shared the incredible story during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, and topped off her fabulous anecdote by firing a zinger at her former Dynasty co-star, Linda Evans. Never change, Dame Joan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMONbi_PmpU

4. Even though she sometimes writes for The Daily Mail, she wasn't afraid to call out the British tabloid when it diminished her career in an article.

https://twitter.com/Joancollinsdbe/status/720420464674230272?s=20

Well said!

5. When she married Percy Gibson, a theater producer 32 years younger than her, in February 2002, Collins had the last laugh about the age gap.

She famously quipped to press waiting outside their wedding venue, "If he dies, he dies!" Happily, the couple have recently celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFXUs03CTIP/

6. She's always maintained that she has no plans whatsoever to retire.

"I have to say the most boring question I'm asked is if I'm going to retire!" she told the Daily Express last year. "I'm very happy doing what I'm doing. I don't have a bucket list. I've done everything that I want to do. What would I do if I retired? Who's going to support me? It takes a lot of money to run four homes and I love working."

7. When her sister, the bestselling author Jackie Collins, passed away in 2015, Collins shared a moving 2,000-word tribute on her website.

“She will live on in the wonderful memories I have of her from our childhood and particularly from the last 15 years, during which we were closer than ever," Dame Joan wrote at the time. "I feel her spirit, I hear her wonderful laugh and I see her all the time in the hundreds of photos of her that are sprinkled around my home. She wasn’t just a star – to me she was an entire galaxy."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFOtYrZC7fY/

8. She attended the 2019 Met Gala in character as Alexis from Dynasty, wearing a custom Valentino gown.

No one can accuse her of failing to nail the Gala's theme: "Camp."

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxJN_AbI9Su/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxKA3pdgudp/?hl=en

9. In 2012, she starred in a brilliant Snickers commercial which cleverly played off her diva-ish Dynasty persona.

Look out for a cameo from Collins' Dynasty co-star Stephanie Beacham at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uii3VhELiuE

10. She's always refused to let ageism get in her way - and even posed for Playboy age 50.

https://twitter.com/Joancollinsdbe/status/913784564178399232?s=20

Just too fabulous, right?

Are you a fan of Dame Joan Collins?