Jackie Collins, novelist who wrote ‘Hollywood Wives,’ dies at 77

LOS ANGELES – 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 died of breast cancer in Los Angeles, publicist Melody Korenbrot told the Associated Press. Collins was 77.

“She lived a wonderfully full life and was adored by her family, friends and the millions of readers who she has been entertaining for over 4 decades,” Collins’ family said in a statement. “She was a true inspiration, a trailblazer for women in fiction and a creative force. She will live on through her characters but we already miss her beyond words.”

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. 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.”