This Is Your Life: Jackie Collins

Jackie COLLINS (1937-2015)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Jackie Collins, novelist, was surprised by Michael Aspel during a launch party for the video release of the film adaptation of her novel Lady Boss at the Bel Age Hotel in Los Angeles.

At the age of sixteen Jackie was sent to Hollywood to live with her older sister, the actress Joan Collins, in the hope of emulating her acting career. Her Hollywood experience would later inspire her writing career, but not before she returned to England, where she toured in repertory theatre and found work as a model. She appeared in several B movies and in minor roles in various television series such as Danger Man and The Saint.

She made the switch from acting to writing, and published her first novel in 1968 - The World is Full of Married Men, which became a best seller. Her second novel, The Stud, was published the year later and also made the best-seller lists. The Stud and Jackie's further success, The Bitch, published in 1979, were made into films starring her sister, Joan. Jackie moved to Hollywood in 1980 and published her most commercially successful novel Hollywood Wives in 1983, which was made into a television miniseries two years later.

"Oh no! You gotta be kidding Michael. If it's in there - it has to be censored! Can I leave now?"

programme details...

Edition No: 862
Subject No: 850
Broadcast date: Wed 24 Mar 1993
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Sun 21 Feb 1993
Venue: CBS Studios, Hollywood
Series: 33
Edition: 26
Code name: Lucky

on the guest list...

Tiffany - daughter
Rory - daughter
Alan Rachins
Yvette Mimieux
Jack Scalia
Bill - brother
Hazel - sister-in-law
Glynis Barber
Michael Brandon
Vincent Irizarry
Mary Frann
Anne-Marie Johnson
Johnny Gold
Jan Gold
Sidney Poitier
Joanna Poitier
Joan Rivers
Joan Collins - sister
Errol Brown
Ginette Brown
Ian McShane
Morton Janklow
Mickie Most
Chris Most
Anthony Newley

production team...

Researcher: Elizabeth Ross
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Directors: Brian Klein, Malcolm Morris
Associate Producer: John Graham
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

A Novel Life

a page-turning good read

Family Life

keeping it in the family

Errol Brown

Mickie Most

Screenshots of Jackie Collins This Is Your Life

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

Jackie Collins - the best-selling writer Michael Aspel surprised in the roof garden at the Bel Age Hotel in Los Angeles on 21 February 1993 - was celebrating the launch of the video of her novel Lady Boss. Michael was the surprise guest at the party, which continued at the nearby studios of CBS.

One hundred and seventy million copies of her books have been sold in more than thirty countries; not bad for someone who first arrived in Hollywood at sixteen hoping to emulate her sister's acting career. Except Jackie had always described herself as 'an out-of-work writer'

Her Hollywood experiences were to get her writing career underway.

Joan told us she met her 'baby' sister – eight years younger – at the airport in LA, tossed her the keys to her apartment, before flying off to some exotic location, and advised her, 'Learn to drive.'

That she did, bought a car, and drove to interminable auditions. The result of that period in her life was her novel The World is Full of Married Men.

When she married night-club owner Oscar Lerman, she plucked up the courage to show him the manuscript. It was he – who died only a short while after – who told her she had a best-seller on her hands.

She followed it with The Stud, the film of which revived Joan's then slightly flagging career.

Last word went to Joan: 'By the way, darling, could I have the keys to my apartment back sometime?'

Series 33 subjects