Jackie Collins
Encyclopedia
Jacqueline Jill "Jackie" Collins (born 4 October 1937) is an English
novelist and former actress. She is the younger sister of actress Joan Collins
. She has written 28 novels, all of which have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. In total, her books have sold over 400 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television mini-series.
in 1937, the younger daughter of Elsa Bessant and Joseph William Collins (died 1988), a theatrical agent whose clients included Shirley Bassey
, The Beatles
and Tom Jones
. Collins' South Africa
n-born father was Jewish and her British
mother was Anglican. A middle child, Collins has an elder sister, actress Joan Collins
(b. 1933) and a younger brother, Bill Collins (b. 1946).
At 15, Collins was expelled
from school; after which, she threw her school uniform in the Thames. During this period she reportedly had a brief affair
with Marlon Brando
, who was 29 at the time.
Like her sister, Collins began in acting roles, in a series of British B movies in the 1950s. She also made appearances in the 1960s ITC television series Danger Man
and The Saint
before giving up an on-screen career. She has since played herself in a few television series including Minder
in 1980.
, was published in 1968. Romance writer Barbara Cartland
called it "nasty, filthy and disgusting". It was banned in Australia and South Africa, but the scandal bolstered sales in the US and the UK. Collins' second novel, The Stud, was published in 1969 and followed the sexually charged affairs of married Fontaine Khaled, who owns a fashionable London
nightclub. It also made the bestseller lists.
, (first published under the title The Hollywood Zoo in the UK and then retitled Sinners worldwide in 1984) was published in 1971 and again made the bestseller lists. This was Collins' first novel to be set in the United States
.
Lovehead followed in 1974 (retitled as The Love Killers in 1989). This novel was Collins' first foray into the world of organized crime
— a genre that would later prove to be extremely successful for her. The plot concerned the organised murder of women's rights activist and feminist Margaret Lawrence Brown. Three women - two of whom are Margaret's half sisters and one whom she saved from a life of working in the porn industry - plan revenge on the mobster responsible, Enzio Bassalino.
Following this, Collins published The World Is Full Of Divorced Women
(unrelated to her first novel) in 1975, and then her longest novel, Lovers & Gamblers, in 1977 which told the story of rock/soul superstar Al King.
In the late 1970s, Collins made a foray into writing for the screen. In 1978, she co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of her 1969 novel The Stud, which starred her older sister Joan as the gold-digging adulteress Fontaine Khaled. Following this, Collins wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of her first novel The World Is Full Of Married Men, which was released in 1979. She also released her seventh novel, The Bitch, a sequel to The Stud, which was also made into a successful film the same year, with Joan Collins reprising the role. The film version of The Bitch
was written and directed by Gerry O'Hara
, based on Collins' source novel. Also in 1979, Collins wrote an original screenplay (not based on any of her novels) for the film Yesterday's Hero
.
, published in 1981 and which she described as her first "Harold Robbins
-type" novel. It was also the first novel to introduce her character, Lucky Santangelo, the "dangerously beautiful" daughter of a one-time gangster Gino Santangelo.
While living in the hills above Sunset Boulevard, Collins collected the knowledge and experience to write her most successful novel, Hollywood Wives
, which was published in 1983. The novel hit the New York Times bestseller list at number one, and went on to sell fifteen million copies worldwide. Marketed as a "scandalous exposé", the novel placed Collins in a powerful position and made her a celebrity of almost equal status to sister Joan, whose own career had taken an upwards direction with her role in the hit television drama Dynasty
. In 1985, Hollywood Wives was also made into a hugely successful television mini-series
, produced by Aaron Spelling
and starring Candice Bergen
, Stefanie Powers
, Angie Dickinson
, Anthony Hopkins
, Suzanne Somers
and Rod Steiger
. Although credited as "Creative Consultant", Collins later stated that she was never consulted during production and that she did not agree with some of the casting choices.
She then went on to write the sequel to Chances entitled Lucky (published in 1985), followed by Hollywood Husbands
(1986), and Rock Star (1988).
. Also in 1990, she wrote and co-produced the television mini-series Lucky Chances
, which combined her first two Lucky Santangelo novels and starred Nicolette Sheridan in the lead role and Sandra Bullock
.
In 1992, Collins was widowed when her husband of 26 years, Oscar Lerman, died of cancer. Around this time, she also wrote and produced another mini-series based on her third Lucky Santangelo novel Lady Boss
(with Kim Delaney
now playing the lead role).
Collins went on to pen several more bestsellers; American Star (1993), Hollywood Kids (1994) and the fourth Santangelo novel, Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge
(1996).
In 1998, Collins made a foray into talk-show television with the series Jackie Collins' Hollywood, but this was unsuccessful. She then released a new novel, Thrill (1998), and also wrote a four-part series of mini-novels to be released in a newspaper every six weeks called L.A. Connections, introducing a new heroine in the form of investigative journalist Madison Castelli. The fifth Lucky Santangelo novel, Dangerous Kiss
, was published in 1999.
starring Farrah Fawcett
, Melissa Gilbert
and Robin Givens
(Collins was credited as Executive Producer).
A new Madison Castelli novel, Deadly Embrace, was published in 2002, and Hollywood Divorces was published in 2003. In 2004, Collins hosted a series of television specials, Jackie Collins Presents, for E! Entertainment Television.
In 2006, after being signed to publisher Simon & Schuster
for twenty years, Collins signed with St. Martin's Press
as her North American publisher though she remains with Simon & Schuster internationally.
Collins continued with Lovers & Players in 2006 and the sixth Lucky Santangelo novel, Drop Dead Beautiful
, in 2007. Her most recent novels include Married Lovers (2008), about the affairs of a female personal trainer named Cameron Paradise. This was followed in 2009 by Poor Little Bitch Girl, which stemmed from an idea Collins had worked on for a television series about heiresses that was ultimately never made. It features Bobby Santangelo Stanislopoulos (son of Lucky Santangelo and Dimitri Stanislopoulos) as a major character, and has cameo appearances by Lucky Santangelo, although Lucky does not feature as a major character in this novel.
. The movie stars Charles Dance
, Trudie Styler
, and Nicole Steinwedell
as Madison Castelli. Collins served as co-producer, and three more Connections movies with the Madison Castelli character are planned.
Although Collins initially said on her official website that there would probably be no more Lucky Santangelo novels after Drop Dead Beautiful, in 2011 she published the seventh book in the series, Goddess of Vengeance. Also according to her official website, she is currently writing a play entitled Jackie Collins' Hollywood Lies.
In a 2011 interview, Collins stated that is currently writing her 29th novel, titled "The Power Trip".
Collins married for the second time to art gallery and Ad-Lib Nightclub owner Oscar Lerman on 15 June 1965, in the home of her sister and Anthony Newley
. Collins and Lerman had two daughters together and Lerman formally adopted Collins' daughter from her previous marriage. Lerman died in 1992 from prostate cancer
. In 1994, Collins became engaged to Los Angeles business executive Frank Calcagnini, who died in 1998 from a brain tumour.
Collins now lives her life, in her own words, "like a cool bachelor
. I have a man for all seasons." She resides in Beverly Hills
in a mansion she designed herself.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
novelist and former actress. She is the younger sister of actress Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
. She has written 28 novels, all of which have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. In total, her books have sold over 400 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television mini-series.
Early life
Collins was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1937, the younger daughter of Elsa Bessant and Joseph William Collins (died 1988), a theatrical agent whose clients included Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
. Collins' South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n-born father was Jewish and her British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
mother was Anglican. A middle child, Collins has an elder sister, actress Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
(b. 1933) and a younger brother, Bill Collins (b. 1946).
At 15, Collins was expelled
Expulsion (academia)
Expulsion or exclusion refers to the permanent removal of a student from a school system or university for violating that institution's rules. Laws and procedures regarding expulsion vary between countries and states.-State sector:...
from school; after which, she threw her school uniform in the Thames. During this period she reportedly had a brief affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, who was 29 at the time.
Like her sister, Collins began in acting roles, in a series of British B movies in the 1950s. She also made appearances in the 1960s ITC television series Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
and The Saint
The Saint (TV series)
The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...
before giving up an on-screen career. She has since played herself in a few television series including Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
in 1980.
1960s
Collins' first novel, The World Is Full of Married MenThe World Is Full of Married Men
The World Is Full of Married Men is the debut novel of British author Jackie Collins, first published in 1968 by W. H. Allen.-Plot summary:...
, was published in 1968. Romance writer Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland
Dame Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ , was an English author, one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century...
called it "nasty, filthy and disgusting". It was banned in Australia and South Africa, but the scandal bolstered sales in the US and the UK. Collins' second novel, The Stud, was published in 1969 and followed the sexually charged affairs of married Fontaine Khaled, who owns a fashionable London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
nightclub. It also made the bestseller lists.
1970s
Collins' third novel, Sunday Simmons & Charlie BrickSunday Simmons & Charlie Brick
Sunday Simmons & Charlie Brick was the third novel from English novelist Jackie Collins, published in 1971 by W.H. Allen. It was retitled The Hollywood Zoo in 1975 and then as Sinners in 1984....
, (first published under the title The Hollywood Zoo in the UK and then retitled Sinners worldwide in 1984) was published in 1971 and again made the bestseller lists. This was Collins' first novel to be set in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Lovehead followed in 1974 (retitled as The Love Killers in 1989). This novel was Collins' first foray into the world of organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
— a genre that would later prove to be extremely successful for her. The plot concerned the organised murder of women's rights activist and feminist Margaret Lawrence Brown. Three women - two of whom are Margaret's half sisters and one whom she saved from a life of working in the porn industry - plan revenge on the mobster responsible, Enzio Bassalino.
Following this, Collins published The World Is Full Of Divorced Women
The World Is Full Of Divorced Women
The World Is Full Of Divorced Women is the fifth novel by English author Jackie Collins, published by W. H. Allen in 1975.-Plot summary:...
(unrelated to her first novel) in 1975, and then her longest novel, Lovers & Gamblers, in 1977 which told the story of rock/soul superstar Al King.
In the late 1970s, Collins made a foray into writing for the screen. In 1978, she co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of her 1969 novel The Stud, which starred her older sister Joan as the gold-digging adulteress Fontaine Khaled. Following this, Collins wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of her first novel The World Is Full Of Married Men, which was released in 1979. She also released her seventh novel, The Bitch, a sequel to The Stud, which was also made into a successful film the same year, with Joan Collins reprising the role. The film version of The Bitch
The Bitch (film)
The Bitch is a British film released in 1979. It is a sequel to The Stud , and both films were based on novels by British author Jackie Collins. Like its predecessor, the film starred her sister, Joan Collins, as Fontaine Khaled.-Plot:...
was written and directed by Gerry O'Hara
Gerry O'Hara
Gerry O'Hara is an English film and television director.O'Hara was an assistant director on Laurence Olivier's film,Richard III; the Carol Reed film, Our Man in Havana and the Academy Award-winning Tom Jones....
, based on Collins' source novel. Also in 1979, Collins wrote an original screenplay (not based on any of her novels) for the film Yesterday's Hero
Yesterday's Hero (film)
Yesterday's Hero was a 1979 film starring Ian McShane, Suzanne Somers, Adam Faith and Paul Nicholas.The story of an alcoholic ex-soccer player, the screenplay was written by novelist Jackie Collins, but was an original work and not based on one of her novels...
.
1980s
In the 1980s, Collins and her family moved to Los Angeles on a full time basis. Her next novel was ChancesChances (novel)
Chances is a 1981 novel by Jackie Collins and is the first novel in The Santangelo Novels series. The novel has three focal points, two of them focusing on the main characters of the novel and a third during the New York City blackout of 1977.-Synopsis:...
, published in 1981 and which she described as her first "Harold Robbins
Harold Robbins
Harold Robbins was one of the best-selling American authors of all time. During his career, he wrote over 25 best-sellers, selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages....
-type" novel. It was also the first novel to introduce her character, Lucky Santangelo, the "dangerously beautiful" daughter of a one-time gangster Gino Santangelo.
While living in the hills above Sunset Boulevard, Collins collected the knowledge and experience to write her most successful novel, Hollywood Wives
Hollywood Wives
Hollywood Wives is a 1983 novel by the British author Jackie Collins. It was her ninth novel, and her most successful.Hollywood Wives tells the stories of several women in Hollywood, ranging all the way from long-time talent agents and screenwriters to vivacious screen vixens and young, innocent...
, which was published in 1983. The novel hit the New York Times bestseller list at number one, and went on to sell fifteen million copies worldwide. Marketed as a "scandalous exposé", the novel placed Collins in a powerful position and made her a celebrity of almost equal status to sister Joan, whose own career had taken an upwards direction with her role in the hit television drama Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
. In 1985, Hollywood Wives was also made into a hugely successful television mini-series
Hollywood Wives (TV miniseries)
Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives is a 1985 television mini-series based on the 1983 novel by Jackie Collins.Hollywood Wives tells the stories of several women in Hollywood, from long-time talent agents and screenwriters to vivacious screen vixens and young, innocent newcomers...
, produced by Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
and starring Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
, Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart.-Early life:...
, Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...
, Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
, Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Somers is an American actress, author, singer and businesswoman, known for her television roles as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Lambert on Step by Step....
and Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
. Although credited as "Creative Consultant", Collins later stated that she was never consulted during production and that she did not agree with some of the casting choices.
She then went on to write the sequel to Chances entitled Lucky (published in 1985), followed by Hollywood Husbands
Hollywood Husbands
Hollywood Husbands is a 1986 novel by the British author Jackie Collins. It was her 11th novel, and the second in her "Hollywood" series, after her 1983 hit Hollywood Wives....
(1986), and Rock Star (1988).
1990s
In 1990, Collins published her third Lucky Santangelo novel, Lady BossLady Boss
Lady Boss is a 1990 novel written by Jackie Collins and is the third in The Santangelo Novels series.The novel was adapted as a TV movie miniseries in 1992, starring Kim Delaney in the title role of Lucky Santangelo...
. Also in 1990, she wrote and co-produced the television mini-series Lucky Chances
Lucky/Chances
Lucky Chances is a 1990 television mini-series written by Jackie Collins and based on her bestselling novels Chances and Lucky. It starred Vincent Irizarry, Sandra Bullock, Eric Braeden, Nicollette Sheridan, Anne-Marie Johnson, Phil Morris, David McCallum, Richard Anderson and Robert Duncan McNeill...
, which combined her first two Lucky Santangelo novels and starred Nicolette Sheridan in the lead role and Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
.
In 1992, Collins was widowed when her husband of 26 years, Oscar Lerman, died of cancer. Around this time, she also wrote and produced another mini-series based on her third Lucky Santangelo novel Lady Boss
Lady Boss
Lady Boss is a 1990 novel written by Jackie Collins and is the third in The Santangelo Novels series.The novel was adapted as a TV movie miniseries in 1992, starring Kim Delaney in the title role of Lucky Santangelo...
(with Kim Delaney
Kim Delaney
Kim Delaney is an American actress best known for her starring role as Detective Diane Russell on the ABC drama television series, NYPD Blue. Early in her career, she played the role of Jenny Gardner in the hugely popular ABC daytime television drama, All My Children...
now playing the lead role).
Collins went on to pen several more bestsellers; American Star (1993), Hollywood Kids (1994) and the fourth Santangelo novel, Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge
Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge
Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge is a 1996 novel by Jackie Collins. It is the fourth novels in The Santangelo Novels series. In the movie Eurotrip, the character Scotty is reading this book on the train from Paris....
(1996).
In 1998, Collins made a foray into talk-show television with the series Jackie Collins' Hollywood, but this was unsuccessful. She then released a new novel, Thrill (1998), and also wrote a four-part series of mini-novels to be released in a newspaper every six weeks called L.A. Connections, introducing a new heroine in the form of investigative journalist Madison Castelli. The fifth Lucky Santangelo novel, Dangerous Kiss
Dangerous Kiss
Dangerous Kiss is a 1999 novel by Jackie Collins. It is the fifth novel in The Santangelo Novels series....
, was published in 1999.
2000s
The 2000s turned out to be Collins' busiest time and she published eight bestsellers, more than any other decade in her career. In 2000, Collins brought back the character of Madison Castelli in a new novel, Lethal Seduction. In 2001 she published Hollywood Wives: The New Generation, which itself was later turned into a television movieTelevision movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
starring Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
, Melissa Gilbert
Melissa Gilbert
Melissa Ellen Gilbert is an American actress, writer, and producer, primarily in movies and television. Gilbert is best known as a child actress who co-starred as Charles Ingalls's second daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, on the dramatic television series Little House on the Prairie...
and Robin Givens
Robin Givens
Robin Simone Givens is an American model and film, television, and stage actress. She is best known for her role as Darlene Merriman on the television series Head of the Class.-Early life:...
(Collins was credited as Executive Producer).
A new Madison Castelli novel, Deadly Embrace, was published in 2002, and Hollywood Divorces was published in 2003. In 2004, Collins hosted a series of television specials, Jackie Collins Presents, for E! Entertainment Television.
In 2006, after being signed to publisher Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
for twenty years, Collins signed with St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
as her North American publisher though she remains with Simon & Schuster internationally.
Collins continued with Lovers & Players in 2006 and the sixth Lucky Santangelo novel, Drop Dead Beautiful
Drop Dead Beautiful
Drop Dead Beautiful is a novel by Jackie Collins, it is the sixth and latest novel in The Santangelo Novels series. The story takes place in the year 2000-Plot:...
, in 2007. Her most recent novels include Married Lovers (2008), about the affairs of a female personal trainer named Cameron Paradise. This was followed in 2009 by Poor Little Bitch Girl, which stemmed from an idea Collins had worked on for a television series about heiresses that was ultimately never made. It features Bobby Santangelo Stanislopoulos (son of Lucky Santangelo and Dimitri Stanislopoulos) as a major character, and has cameo appearances by Lucky Santangelo, although Lucky does not feature as a major character in this novel.
2010s
In 2010, Paris Connections, a direct-to-DVD movie adapted from Collins' L.A. Connections series of mini-novels was made by Amber Entertainment in association with the UK supermarket chain TescoTesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
. The movie stars Charles Dance
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...
, Trudie Styler
Trudie Styler
Trudie Styler is an English actress and producer. She is the second wife of the musician Sting.-Life and career:Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England. She attended North Bromsgrove High School, where one of her teachers was Clifford T. Ward...
, and Nicole Steinwedell
Nicole Steinwedell
-Career:She has appeared in several films and television productions including as Bridget Sullivan, on seventeen episodes of the television series The Unit.-Filmography:*Paris Connections as Madison*A Single Man as Doris...
as Madison Castelli. Collins served as co-producer, and three more Connections movies with the Madison Castelli character are planned.
Although Collins initially said on her official website that there would probably be no more Lucky Santangelo novels after Drop Dead Beautiful, in 2011 she published the seventh book in the series, Goddess of Vengeance. Also according to her official website, she is currently writing a play entitled Jackie Collins' Hollywood Lies.
In a 2011 interview, Collins stated that is currently writing her 29th novel, titled "The Power Trip".
Personal life
Collins married her first husband, Wallace Austin, in 1959. They had a daughter and divorced after four and a half years.Collins married for the second time to art gallery and Ad-Lib Nightclub owner Oscar Lerman on 15 June 1965, in the home of her sister and Anthony Newley
Anthony Newley
Anthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...
. Collins and Lerman had two daughters together and Lerman formally adopted Collins' daughter from her previous marriage. Lerman died in 1992 from prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
. In 1994, Collins became engaged to Los Angeles business executive Frank Calcagnini, who died in 1998 from a brain tumour.
Collins now lives her life, in her own words, "like a cool bachelor
Bachelor
A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married . Unlike his female counterpart, the spinster, a bachelor may have had children...
. I have a man for all seasons." She resides in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
in a mansion she designed herself.