Joan Collins, 91, goes from acting royalty to the British sovereignty in Wallis Simpson role for new biopic about the Duchess of Windsor

She made her name as the scheming Alexis Carrington in Dynasty.

Now, at the age of 91, Dame Joan Collins is taking on a very different dynasty – the British royal family.

The actress has been pictured for the first time as Wallis Simpson in a new biopic of the American divorcee who became the Duchess of Windsor after marrying King Edward VIII, following his abdication, in a new film based on her final years.

In the images for the movie titled The Bitter End, Dame Joan’s hair is perfectly coiffed into Simpson’s classic style, while flanked by Conclave actress Isabella Rossellini who plays the Duchess’s formidable French lawyer, Suzanne Blum.

The photographs were taken in the grounds of Villa Windsor, the Parisian townhouse where Simpson and her royal husband hosted the likes of Diana Mitford.

Dame Joan, who will be celebrating her 92nd birthday later this month, said: ‘In production for The Bitter End, I’m delighted to post the official first look photograph of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, and her scheming lawyer, Maitre Suzanne Blum in the garden of her villa in Paris. 

‘Under Mike Newell’s legendary direction, this is a truly exciting production.’ 

The film will chart ‘the shocking untold story’ of Sompson’s twilight years when she finds herself ensnared in a menacing grip of her lawyer Blum’s obsession and coercive control.

Blum worked on some notorious high society cases, most notably representing Rita Hayworth during her divorce proceedings from Prince Aly Khan.

By 1977 she was the only representative for the widowed Simpson, whose ill health left her practically confined to her Paris bedroom.

Biographer Hugo Vickers has described how the ‘sinister’ Blum took advantage of the royal’s memory lapses and physical weakness and ‘sacked’ Simpson’s other lawyers, meaning Blum had ‘near full control of the Duchess’.

The Duchess of Windsor died in April 1986, with dementia, leaving her unable to speak. While Blum died eight years later in 1994.

On Thursday it was announced Game of Thrones actor Charles Dance and Harry Potter star Miranda Richardson will join the cast of the much anticipated movie.

Dance’s casting has prompted speculation that he could reprise his role as Lord Mountbatten, who he portrayed in The Crown. 

The former governor-general of India became close to Simpson following the abdication and escorted the Duchess to her husband’s funeral in 1972.

As an American divorcee who seduced a British royal, Mrs Simpson has been dubbed the original Meghan Markle.

Simpson was at the center of the most scandalous love affair of the 20th century when she entered into a relationship and marriage with Prince Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne.

His obsession with Wallis subjected her to a brutal character assassination. She was called a temptress and sorceress who had cast a spell on the fairy-tale Prince to become Queen.

In 1936, King Charles’s great-uncle Edward VIII’s choice to abdicate the throne to marry her.

The move clashed with his responsibilities as head of the Church of England – sparking a constitutional crisis which left the nation stunned and beginning a rift within the family that never healed.

The couple went into exile in France at Villa Windsor, a 14-room Parisian townhouse, where they received guests including British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and his wife Diana.

The Duke had hoped his exile would be brief but he was never allowed to move back to Britain, with his brother the new King George VI threatening to cut off his allowance if he tried to return without an invitation.

Edward’s health deteriorated in the 1960s and towards the end of 1971, the Duke – a heavy smoker – was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Netflix’s The Crown depicted how, in May 1972 – ten days before his death – Edward was visited by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

She spoke to him alone before appearing with just the Duchess for a photograph. Edward died on May 28, less than a month before his 78th birthday.

It was only after death that the tension in the family seemed to dissipate and Edward’s body was returned to Britain, where it lay in state at Windsor Castle’s St George’s Chapel before his funeral.

Wallis died in 1986 aged 89 after years of frailty and suffering from dementia which led to her living as a recluse.

The Royal Family allowed her to rest next to her late husband on Windsor’s grounds.