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Novelist Jackie Collins dies at 77

| September 20, 2015 9:00 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Jackie Collins, the bestselling author of dozens of novels including "Hollywood Wives" that dramatized the lifestyles of the rich and the treacherous, died Saturday.

Collins, 77, died of breast cancer in Los Angeles, publicist Melody Korenbrot said.

Unlike her older sister Joan Collins, the "Dynasty" actress who was a direct part of the 1980s Hollywood glitterati, Jackie Collins chose to document LA lives in her pulpy, page-turning fiction.

Collins wrote what she knew, and that meant stories of sex, glamour, power and more sex, a lot more sex. She began her literary career saying more than some wanted to hear, and eventually became the kind of author from whom readers could never get enough, providing a precursor to the culture of "Desperate Housewives" and "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."

Collins told The Associated Press in a 2011 interview that she "never felt bashful writing about sex."

Born Jacqueline Jill Collins in London in 1937, her first novel, "The World is Full of Married Men," was a story of sex and show business set in "Swinging London" in the mid-1960s. It came out in 1968 and became a scandalous best-seller, banned in Australia and condemned by romance writer Barbara Cartland.

Collins followed in the 1970s with books like "The World is Full of Divorced Women" and "Lovers & Gamblers."

By the 1980s, she had moved to Los Angeles and turned out the 1983 novel she is still best known for, "Hollywood Wives," which has sold more than 15 million copies. It came at the same time that her sister hit the height of her own fame on "Dynasty."

"Dynasty" producer Aaron Spelling would also produce the 1985 hit TV miniseries of "Hollywood Wives," which featured Candice Bergen, Angie Dickinson and Suzanne Somers among others.

It led to follow-ups like "Hollywood Husbands" (1986), "Hollywood Kids" (1984) and Hollywood Wives: The New Generation (2001).

The book made Jackie Collins a celebrity in her own right, and she loved the part, looking, living and behaving more like an actress than an author. In many ways her own persona was her greatest character.

Collins embraced Twitter in her later years, and loved the engagement with her over 150,000 followers.

"I love tweeting. I have so much fun with my fans," she told the AP in 2011. "I've asked them for reviews. I answer people's questions. Sometimes I'll do a little survey and say, 'Who is hot this week?'"

Many were using Twitter to mourn her Saturday night, including Oprah Winfrey who Tweeted "RIP Jackie Collins. I always loved our interviews."