Debbie J. - Biography of Jackie Collins

The inside peek at Hollywood and the lives of the rich and famous provided by Jackie Collins through her books has made her one of the world's best-selling writers. She has more than 400 million books sold in over 40 countries, and every one of her 28 books have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. Many debut at #1 the moment they are published. A number of her books have made it to the big screen. One of ABC Network's highest-rated miniseries was based on Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives, starring Anthony Hopkins and Candice Bergen.

Undoubtedly one of the main reasons Jackie Collins' books are so popular is that her characters are closely patterned on real personalities, often blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Collins herself claims that she writes about real people in disguise, and with books such as Hollywood Wives, Hollywood Husbands, Hollywood Divorces, and Hollywood Kids, her readers are often left wondering which real-life famous person they are actually reading about and just where the truth ends and fiction begins. The other key factor in her popularity, of course, is the liberal addition of plenty of graphic sex.

Jackie Collins began writing while still a teenager, but it wasn't until 1968 that she published her first novel, The World is Full of Married Men . Set in London of the 60s, the novel follows cheating husband David Cooper as he loses both his wife and mistress. Hollywood provides a minor subtext through the character of producer Jay Grossman, a trend which Jackie Collins would expand upon in subsequent novels. The World is Full of Married Men was banned in South Africa and Australia, and fellow UK writer, romance novelist Barbara Cartland, called the novel "nasty, filthy, and disgusting." The ensuing scandal helped promote sales in the US and the UK, and propelled the book onto the best-seller list.

One of Jackie Collins' most enduring characters is that of Lucky Santangelo, who perhaps is modeled more than any other character on Jackie herself. Lucky is the subject of eight books, including an appearance in Poor Little Bitch Girl (2010), which primarily features her son Bobby Santangelo Stanislopoulos. In Goddess of Vengeance , due to be released later in 2012, Lucky has matured gracefully and remains ageless. According to the second book in the Santangelo series, also named Lucky, Lucky was born in 1950, which would place her age beyond 60 when Goddess of Vengeance is released in 2012. Collins, however, refuses to discuss Lucky's current age. She states , "How old is James Bond? When you look around, face it, Madonna is nearly 60, and Sharon Stone. I mean, look how hot women are today."

Along with Lucky and the popular Hollywood tell-all novels in the Hollywood Series, Jackie Collins has created another popular character in investigative journalist Madison Castelli, who debuted in the L.A. Connections series in 1998. According to Jackie, these strong, ambitious women draw women readers who want to emulate their style, while men are drawn by the graphic sex. Regardless of what it is that draws readers to her books, Jackie Collins has found a successful formula that continues to draw readers and sell books by the millions.

Jacqueline Jill "Jackie" Collins was born in London on October 4, 1937, the middle child of British mother Elsa Bessant and South-African born Jewish father Joseph William Collins. Joseph was a theatrical agent, with a stellar client list that included Roger Moore, Peter Sellers, The Beatles, Tom Jones, and Shirley Bassey. Mother Elsie was a nightclub hostess, who changed her name to Elsa after her first child, Jackie's older sister, Joan, was born in 1933. Joan is a well-known actress, and her younger brother Bill (born 1946), is a real estate agent.

The Collins family lived an upper middle class lifestyle on fortunes that were sometimes variable. Initially they lived in a series of rented flats, then settled near Regent's Park in central London. Joan Collins has recollections of having a nanny who would dress them up when they headed to spend a safe evening in the tube stations during the blitz or take them to classes at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The girls grew up around the entertainment business and their father had hopes that they might enter the theater. Joan became actively involved as an actress, but Jackie was less attracted to the profession, although she appeared in a few B-movies in the 50s and two television series.

Jackie Collins was always a bit of a rebel with a self-admitted crazy streak, eager to break free of her middle-class restraints. She spent a lot of time reading and living in a fantasy world of her own creation, often pretending she was American. She learned early on that sex sells, writing dirty limericks and fantasies and charging her fellow students 6 cents a page for a peek. She admits that she used to read her father's Playboy magazines and that she admired the guys with fantastic apartments and cars.

Collins admits that she was a poor student, only earning good grades in composition class. She would regularly sneak out of school. At age 15, her many transgressions led Jackie to being expelled from the Francis Holland School in England for truancy and smoking. In a dramatic gesture worthy of one of her characters, she tossed her school uniform into the Thames River and left her childhood behind forever.

It should be noted that some official versions of the Jackie Collins biography cite her year of birth as 1941, not 1937, with marriage to first husband Wallace Austin in 1959 at age 18, and marriage to Oscar Lerman in 1966. However, this appears to be either an inaccuracy or a selective revision of history, as the four-year difference calls into question the plausibility of some key dates in her life history.

Achievement Award, 2012

Hosted her own daily television show, Jackie Collins Hollywood, in 1998.

Follow this link for a bibliography of her work.

Jackie Collins also wrote dozens of screenplays, including those for television mini-series, teleplays, and movies. Some of her notable contributions include the TV show The Bitch and Hollywood Wives: The New Generation.

Collins also appeared as herself in more than 80 different television programs.

After being expelled in 1952 at age 15 from Francis Holland School for truancy, smoking, and selling copies of her own book of dirty limericks, Jackie moved quickly into the world of adulthood. Her parents, despairing of her wild behavior, gave her two choices. She could end up in juvenile hall, in other words, reform school, or she could go live with her older sister in Hollywood. She chose the latter option and stayed for a time with older sister, Joan, a well-established actress who was already gaining notoriety dating hot Hollywood heart-throbs of the day.

Around that time Jackie Collins purportedly had a fling with Marlon Brando, who was then 29 years old to her 15. She was partying at a club in Hollywood with sister, Joan, when a handsome young Marlon Brando sent a messenger over to their table asking to meet her. Brando was hot box office property at the time, riding on the wave of Academy Award nominations for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and The Wild One (1953). Jackie didn't hesitate, and they had what she later called "a very brief but fabulous affair."

In 1960, Jackie Collins married her first husband, Wallace Austin, who was 12 years her senior. They had a daughter, Tracy, in 1961, and were divorced in 1964 after four and a half years of marriage. Jackie later revealed that Wallace was a compulsive gambler, substance abuser and mentally unstable. Wallace eventually killed himself of a drug overdose. As she seemed to do with every experience in her life, Jackie viewed this time as a period of learning and research that helped her become knowledgeable about drugs and drug use, knowledge she used to inform future novels.