September 1958: English actress and novelist Jackie Collins at the cocktail bar in her home in London proudly displaying her collection of miniature bottles. (Photo by Frank Martin/BIPs/Getty Images)
Jacqueline Jill Collins was born in October 1937 in Hampstead. Her father, Joseph Williams Collins, was a theatrical agent whose clients included Shirley Bassey, the Beatles and Tom Jones. Her sister Joan was four years older. She was expelled from the Francis Holland School for girls at the age of 15 after which she threw her school uniform into the Thames (she later sent her daughters to the same school!) Around this time it has be said that she slept with Marlon Brando who was 29 at the time.
Not long after Jackie as a singer and appeared with Des O’Connor when they both featured in the billing for Lonnie Donegan on his UK tour about 1958.
In 1959 she changed her name to “Lynn Curtis”, because of forever being referred to as “sister of Joan Collins”. Two years later she felt comfortable enough to revert to her real name.
Like her sister, Jackie began appeared in a few 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 acting career
Collins’ first book, The World Is Full of Married Men, was published in 1968. Barbara Cartland called it “nasty, filthy and disgusting” and it was initially banned in Australia and South Africa. 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.
In the Sunday Times Rich List 2011, Collins was listed as the UK’s fifth richest author with an estimated personal fortune of £60 million and was awarded an OBE in 2013.
Collins died on 19 September 2015 of Breast cancer aged 77.
27th September 1977: British actress Joan Collins and writer Jackie Collins at a party celebrating the release of ‘The Stud’, a film based on a novel by her sister. (Photo by Jones/Evening Standard/Getty Images)
The World is Full of Married Men, 1968.
October 1956: Actress Jackie Collins reflected in her wardrobe mirrors while posing in her London flat. (Photo by John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images)
English actress Joan Collins (left) and her sister, English novelist Jackie Collins, 8th January 1966. (Photo by Reg Burkett/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
circa 1956: Jackie Collins, budding starlet and sister of Joan Collins. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1st January 1956: British actress and novelist Jackie Collins. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
29th October 1979: Carol Channing, actress and star of the musical ‘Hello Dolly’, Polly Styrene, singer and songwriter formerly of punk band X Ray Spex, and novelist Jackie Collins, from left to right, at the Savoy Hotel for the ‘Women Of The Year’ luncheon. The event was held in aid of the Greater London Fund For The Blind charity. (Photo by Wesley/Keystone/Getty Images)
16th October 1956: Model Jackie Collins at the Motor Show, Earl’s Court, London, wearing a leopard print outfit designed by Car Robes, makers of car seat covers. She is sitting in a Goggomobil T300, the smallest family four-seater car on the market, which is made in Bavaria. (Photo by Ron Burton/Keystone/Getty Images)
12th August 1955: 17-year-old starlet Jackie Collins, the younger sister of Joan Collins, cools off at the Oasis swimming pool in London’s Holborn. She later made a name for herself as a novelist. (Photo by John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images)
12th August 1955: 17-year-old starlet Jackie Collins, the younger sister of Joan Collins, cools off at the Oasis swimming pool in London’s Holborn. She later made a name for herself as a novelist. (Photo by John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images)
12th August 1955: 17-year-old starlet Jackie Collins, the younger sister of Joan Collins, cools off at the Oasis swimming pool in London’s Holborn. She later made a name for herself as a novelist. (Photo by John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images)
5th May 1965: Newly divorced writer Jackie Collins (Mrs Wallace Austin) in the street after leaving the divorce courts. (Photo by Harold Clements/Express/Getty Images)
4th January 1969: English novelist and actress Jackie Collins attempts to find the six most beautiful pairs of legs for the cover of her new book ‘The Stud’. (Photo by Les Lee/Express/Getty Images)
3rd February 1968: Writer and actress, Jackie Collins, at home with her pet poodle. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)
The Stud is the second novel by Jackie Collins, first published in 1969 by W.H. Allen. It was made into a film starring her sister Joan in 1977.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – FEBRUARY 22: Producer Jackie Collins (L) and actress Joan Collins attend the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 22, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
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