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Jacqueline Jill "Jackie" Collins (born 4 October 1937), is a British-born romance novelist. She is the younger sister of actress-writer Joan Collins and the elder sister of real estate developer Bill Collins, born in 1946.

Collins is currently one of the richest living authors with her personal wealth exceeding £70 million.

Contents 1 Life & Times 2 Career 3 See also 4 External links

Collins was born in Bayswater, London, to Joseph William "Will" Collins (a South African-born Jewish theatrical agent), and Elsa Bessant Collins, a dancer. She has one full sister, the actress Joan Collins, and a brother Bill Collins. After what seemed to be a sunny childhood in England, Collins was expelled from high school for poor attendance in 1952. Her parents swiftly sent her to live with her sister Joan Collins, who at the time was starting what would be a roller-coaster career, in Los Angeles.

While living in Hollywood, Collins attempted to start a film career similar to her sisters. On the whole her career proved fruitless with Collins appearing in only a handful of forgettable films.

Disillusioned with her life, Collins left Los Angeles and returned to London where she married her first husband, Wallace Austin, in 1955, and they had a daughter, Tracy--but it was not a happy union. Disgusted with her husband's drug abuse, Collins was not surprised when Austin abandoned her after only a few years of marriage. She divorced him soon after and went to live with her parents at their apartment in North London.

In 1966 Collins married for the second time to Oscar Lerman, a popular London nightclub and art gallery owner. Together they had two daughters, Tiffany and Rory; additionally, Lerman formally adopted Collins's daughter Tracy. With his encouragement, Collins went on to write several steamy bestsellers during the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1980s Collins and her family moved to Los Angeles on a full time basis. In the high stakes hills above Sunset Boulevard, Collins collected the knowledge to write her most noted 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.

In the early 1990s Collins experienced a tremendous loss when her husband of twenty six years, Oscar Lerman, died of cancer. Striken with grief Collins threw herself into her work, producing two mini -series based on her Lucky Santangelo novels while churning out several bestsellers. In the mid-1990s Collins met Los Angeles businessman Frank Calcagnini who she became engaged to. Sadly Calcagnini also died of cancer in 1998 as Collins's attempted foray into talk television also floundered.

Collins is rumoured to possess a fortune in the neighborhood of $200 million (USD), although the Sunday Times Rich List estimates it at £70 million (GBP, equals about $135 million USD) as of 2006.

Currently, Collins resides in Beverly Hills, California hard at work on her 25th novel.

In 1968 Collins released her first novel, The World is Full of Married Men which was shocking for its time due to raunchy sexuality that pervaded the novel. It became a sensational bestseller across the globe. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Collins churned out several bestsellers including The Stud, The Bitch, Sinners, Lovehead (a.k.a. - The Love Killers), The World Is Full Of Divorced Women, and Lovers & Gamblers.

In 1978 Collins co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of her 1969 novel The Stud, starring her older sister, Joan, who had experienced a devastating career slump. Collins had offered the film rights to the novel to her sister for free and the film was produced independently after Joan arranged financing through a casual acquaintance she had met at the Cannes Film Festival. The film went on to become a box office hit. In 1979, Collins released the novel The Bitch, a sequel to The Stud, which was also made into a successful film the same year, with sister Joan reprising her role. The film version of The Bitch was written and directed by Gerry O'Hara, based on Collins' source novel.

In 1985 her most successful novel Hollywood Wives was adapted into a highly rated mini-series for the ABC Television Network under the production of Aaron Spelling. Collins further established herself in the fiction realm with the creation of mafia princess Lucky Santangelo, arguably her most popular character, who has spawned several bestsellers.

In 2004 Collins created a series of specials for E!, which she hosted to great success. She also left her publisher of nearly twenty years, Simon & Schuster, in favour of St. Martin's Press as she grew restless with her current publishing situation.

In 2006 Collins released her 24th novel, Lovers & Players which became a New York Times bestseller. To date she has sold over 400 million copies of her novels and is translated into 20 languages.

L. A. Connections

• Power (1998)
• Obsession (1998)
• Murder (1998)
• Revenge (1998)
• L.A. Connections (1999)
• Lethal Seduction (2000)
• Deadly Embrace (2002)

Lucky Santangelo

• Chances (1981)
• Lucky (1985)
• Lady Boss (1990)
• Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge (1997)
• Dangerous Kiss (1999)

Hollywood Series

• Hollywood Wives (1983)
• Hollywood Husbands (1986)
• Hollywood Kids (1994)
• Hollywood Wives: The New Generation (2001)
• Hollywood Divorces (2003)

Other novels

• The World is Full of Married Men (1968)
• The Stud (1969)
• Sinners (a.k.a. - Sunday Simmons & Charlie Brick) (1971)
• Lovehead (a.k.a. - The Love Killers) (1974)
• The World is Full of Divorced Women (1975)
• Lovers & Gamblers (1977)
• The Bitch (1979)
• Rock Star (1988)
• American Star (1993)
• Thrill (1998)
• Lovers & Players (2006)

Upcoming

• Drop Dead Beautiful – The Continuing Adventures of Lucky Santangelo (2007)

• List of bestselling novels in the United States

• Jackie Collins.com - The Official Jackie Collins Web Site
• Jackie Collins Bio at Greater Talent Network (Speakers Bureau)
• Jackie Collins at the Internet Book List