31 Facts About Jackie Collins

Jacqueline Jill Collins was an English romance novelist and actress.

Jackie Collins moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there.

Jackie Collins wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times bestsellers list.

Jackie Collins's books have sold more than 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages.

Jackie Collins was the younger sister of Dame Joan Collins.

Jackie Collins's South African-born father was Jewish, and her British mother was Anglican.

Jackie Collins attended Francis Holland School, an independent day school for girls in London and was expelled at age 15.

In 1956, Jackie Collins visited her older sister, Joan, who was then based in Los Angeles.

Jackie Collins returned to London after failing to gain a US work permit to enable her to be groomed for stardom at 20th Century Fox.

Jackie Collins began appearing in acting roles in a series of British B movies.

Jackie Collins had begun many works of fiction but abandoned them, and only completed her first novel after being persuaded to do so by her second husband Oscar Lerman.

Jackie Collins co-wrote the screenplay for The Stud, based on her second book; the film starred her older sister Joan as the gold-digging adulteress Fontaine Khaled.

Jackie Collins released her seventh novel, The Bitch, a sequel to The Stud; The Bitch was made into a successful 1979 film, with Joan Collins reprising the role.

Around the same time, Jackie Collins wrote an original screenplay for the film Yesterday's Hero.

Jackie Collins then went on to write the sequel to Chances, titled Lucky, followed by Hollywood Husbands and Rock Star.

In 1990, Jackie Collins published her third Lucky Santangelo novel, Lady Boss, and wrote and co-produced the television miniseries Lucky Chances, which combined her first two Lucky Santangelo novels and starred Nicollette Sheridan and Sandra Bullock.

In 1992, Jackie Collins was widowed when her husband of 26 years, Oscar Lerman, died of cancer.

Jackie Collins's run of best-sellers continued with American Star, Hollywood Kids, and the fourth Santangelo novel, Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge.

Jackie Collins was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1993, when she was surprised by Michael Aspel.

In 2000, Jackie Collins brought back the character of Madison Castelli in a new novel, Lethal Seduction.

Jackie Collins served as co-producer, and three more Connections movies with the Madison Castelli character are planned.

Jackie Collins continued to write Lucky Santangelo books, including Goddess of Vengeance.

Jackie Collins held dual citizenship: British and US.

Jackie Collins married her first husband, Wallace Austin, in 1960; they divorced in 1964.

In 1965, Jackie Collins married again, this time to American art gallery and nightclub owner, Oscar Lerman, who was 18 years her senior.

In 1994, Jackie Collins became engaged to Los Angeles business executive Frank Calcagnini, who died in 1998 from a brain tumor.

In 2011, when asked if she were dating anyone, Jackie Collins said: "I have a man for every occasion", adding:.

Jackie Collins said she loved Los Angeles and recalled that while growing up in England, she often read novels by Harold Robbins, Mickey Spillane, and Raymond Chandler.

Jackie Collins died on 19 September 2015, of breast cancer, two weeks before her 78th birthday.

Jackie Collins had been diagnosed with stage-4 breast cancer more than six years before her death but kept her illness almost entirely to herself.

Jackie Collins reportedly informed her sister Joan Collins two weeks before she died and flew from Los Angeles to London to appear on the ITV chat show Loose Women nine days before her death.