Remembering Jackie Collins
- Jackie Collins passed away six years ago today at the age of 77 after privately battling stage IV breast cancer for six years.
- The younger sister of Dynasty star Joan Collins, she quickly escaped her sister’s shadow when she published her first novel in 1968, going on to sell 500 million copies of her 25 novels.
- Collins made her final talk show appearance just nine days before her death, flying from Los Angeles to London to do an episode of Loose Women, where she said: “I couldn’t care less about my age. I’m still here, I love what I do, and I have a passion for it.”
A living legend and singular talent, her sudden death shocked the world as many had just seen her one week prior doing the talk show rounds.
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Collins found a fitting final resting place in the famed Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery alongside Hollywood icons including Marilyn Monroe, Merv Griffin and Billy Wilder.
There she is interred with her second husband, Oscar Lerman, with a plaque that reads: “She gave a great deal of people a great deal of pleasure.”
That she did.
Collins had a unique ability to tell and craft stories that were unlike any other author. That ability is why she sold 500 million copies of her work worldwide at the time of her death.
Or, by comparison, more books than Stephen King, Ronald Dahl, John Grisham, J.R.R. Tolkien and Leo Tolstoy. More books than EL James and Stephenie Meyer combined.
Only two romance novelists have sold more copies worldwide than Collins – Danielle Steele and Barbara Cartland. But while those women have sold almost twice as many novels as Collins, they also released far more novels. Steele has published 179 of her saccharine sagas and Cartland somehow managed to release an unconscionable 723 books in her lifetime. Meanwhile, Collins joined the 500 club by putting out a still prolific but decidedly more manageable 25 novels during her lifetime.
Cartland is also one of the just four British writers who have sold more novels than Collins. The other three? William Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, and JK Rowling.
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Collins came into her career as a writer almost by chance, having first left England at 15 to join her sister Joan in Hollywood. However, her acting career was short-lived, and at the age of 31, she decided to head home to England and pen her first novel.
She had done plenty of living by that time, revealing over the years that she briefly dated and then ditched an unnamed Prince while still in her teens and had a brief fling with Marlon Brando.
He was 29 at the time, and she was just 15.
Collins married her first husband, Wallace Austin, in 1960 but split with him after just four years of marriage. She then married Lerman the following year.
Lerman, an LA nightclub owner, was almost two decades Collins’ senior at the time, and their nuptials were marred by the death of Austin from a deliberate overdose that same year.
The two would remain married until Lerman’s death in 1992 from prostate cancer, leaving behind his wife and their three daughters. Collins had planned to walk down the aisle once more, but her fiance Frank Calcagnini passed away in 1998 shortly after doctors discovered he had a brain tumor.
Collins demurred when asked about her love life in a 2011 interview with ABC News: “I have a man for every occasion.”
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Collins poured all of this drama and intrigue into her novels, starting with her 1968 debut, The World is Full of Married Men. The tawdry tome quickly drew the attention of the aforementioned Ms. Cartland, who called the book “nasty, filthy and disgusting” and accused its author of “creating every pervert in Britain.”
That ringing un-endorsement and subsequent bans of her book in South Africa and Australia only helped to fuel sales and gave Collins an international bestseller straight out of the gate.
The best thing about her success was that it was wholly her own and not linked to her famous older sister Joan.
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It was Joan who first shot to fame after signing one of the last studio contracts in 1955 with 20th Century Fox, appearing in films including The Virgin Queen and Esther and the King.
She was able to break that contract in 1960 and for the next two decades did occasional film work, including in adaptations of her sister’s novels The Stud and The Bitch, before returning to the spotlight with a vengeance in 1981 when she joined the television series Dynasty in its second season.
Joan spent 10 seasons playing the scheming, conniving, and ruthless Alexis Carrington Colby. She received a Primetime Emmy nomination and won a Golden Globe for her work in helping to create one of television’s most iconic characters.
Stories of tension between the two fueled the tabloids throughout their 50-year careers, but there is no denying that both women achieved success and fame on their own merits.
Collins’ success was particularly hard-fought since female authors were few and far between at the start of her career. Collins had an unwavering belief in herself, however, and each novel sold more than the last for the next two decades, culminating with the release of her 1983 novel Hollywood Wives.
Collins sold over 15 million copies of the book, which spent months on the New York Times Best Seller List.
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The success of that book made Collins a popular talk show guest and launched the second wave of her career as an ambassador for female empowerment. The high school dropout may have been an unlikely feminist to some, but there were few greater, or louder, champions of women over the next 25 years.
“Girls, when they leave school, should be taught that in life they can do anything,” Collins once said. “I have this strong belief that women can do anything.”
This was evidenced too in her work ethic, which did not wane in her final years. In fact, in the six years after she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, Collins released five novels and a cookbook.
She also promoted each novel, and in her last ever talk show appearance, flew from Los Angeles to London to appear on the popular program Loose Women.
During that appearance, she joked about trying out each sexual position she writes about before putting it in her books and, a month shy on her 78th birthday, told the hosts: “I couldn’t care less about my age. I’m still here, I love what I do, and I have a passion for it.”
Collins added: “And it’s better than the alternative.”
She then flew home to Beverly Hills, where she passed away nine days later. There was never any reason given for why she opted to keep her battle private, but she had noted in the past that her father insisted she and Joan keep their mother’s breast cancer a secret.
And in her final interview with People, she revealed that in 2007 she discovered a lump in her breast but refused to have it checked out because she had determined that it was benign.
Her daughter Tiffany would later reveal that Collins was diagnosed with cancer two years after noticing a lump – in 2007 given the timeline of her diagnosis.
Tiffany also revealed that the cancer had metastasized to the bones by the time her mother saw a doctor and that the family was told not to mention her cancer – a request much like the one her father made 50 years prior.
Hundreds of tributes quickly poured in, but it was her sister Joan who said it best when she wrote: “She wasn’t just a star to me she was an entire galaxy.”
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Who Is High-Risk For Breast Cancer
A mammogram is the screening method used to detect breast cancer; it looks for lumps and early signs of cancer in the breast tissue. Women ages 45 to 54 should get annual mammograms to screen for breast cancer, and women with a history of breast cancer in their family should begin screening even earlier.
Women are considered at a higher risk if they fit into certain categories such as:
- You're older: Your risk for this cancer increases as you age, so it’s important to be more vigilant about screenings as you get older.
- You have a gene mutation: Some women inherit changes to genes like BRCA1 or BRCA2, that increase their risk for breast cancer. Genetic tests are a great way to find these changes early and give women the chance to take preventive steps.
- You were exposed to estrogen for longer: Estrogen is a hormone that helps some breast cancers grow. Getting your period early (before age 12) or starting menopause late (after age 55), increases your exposure to this hormone.
- You waited to have children: Your risk may be higher if you waited to have children until after age 30, or you never gave birth. But the risk is only slightly higher, so you're not definitely going to get breast cancer just because you waited to have children.
- You were exposed to radiation: Being exposed to radiation early in life; for example, during treatment for a cancer like Hodgkin's lymphoma, can increase your risk of breast cancer later in life.
- You have a family or personal history of breast cancer: Having cancer in your family, or going through treatment yourself, can make you more likely to also be diagnosed with this disease.
Why Celebrities Like Jackie Collins Opt to Keep Cancer Battles Private
Jackie Collins is just one of the many celebrities who have chosen to keep their cancer battle private.
According to Dr. Renee Exelbert, a licensed psychologist and founding director of The Metamorphosis Center for Psychological and Physical Change in New York, the decision to openly disclose or not disclose one's diagnosis may be made more complicated for someone in the public eye, as they may feel pressure to serve as a role model, or to use their notable platform for the greater good.
She previously told SurvivorNet that public figures and celebrities are often held to a harsher standard, frequently having their appearance and behaviors rigorously evaluated. This might make hiding a cancer diagnosis more difficult and may also make disclosing a cancer diagnosis a greater burden to bear. Also, just because someone is a public figure or celebrity does not spare them from judgment and the insensitive comments of others, especially while they may be fighting for their life. She pointed to Chadwick Boseman as an example.
"While privately undergoing cancer treatments, many mocked and criticized him (Boseman) on social media for appearing 'feminine and skinny' and hypothesized that he must be a drug addict," Exelbert told SurvivorNet. "Later, many felt cheated by not knowing that he had struggled, because they would have wanted to send him support. However, he made the choice about how he wanted to live his life, and that as he created his magic, he wanted his audience to focus on his characters and their important messages, versus his disease."
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.