Queen of Hollywood romance, steamy sex and scandal novels, author Jackie Collins, took her readers to Hollywood behind the celebrity scenes. Though born and raised in London, Jackie followed her older sister, actress Joan Collins, to Tinseltown in the 1960s. At first, Jackie had tried acting but after a number of B-rated films and television series, she realized it wasn’t her talent. However, what she had learned about celebrities behind closed doors inspired her to start writing books about what she knew.
Jackie’s mother was a nightclub hostess and father a show-business manager whose clients included the Beatles and Tom Jones. In her teen years, Jackie was expelled from an all-girls London prep school amid rumors of an affair with 29-year-old Marlon Brando. Her second husband of 26 years (her first husband died of a drug overdose soon after their divorce) was Oscar Lerman, a nightclub owner who convinced Jackie to give up acting and become a writer. Her first novel, “The World Is Full of Married Men,” about a married London middle-aged advertising executive who falls for a much younger woman was published in 1968 and made the “New York Times” bestseller list. The content was so hot that it was banned in Australia and South Africa. Collins went on to write 32 novels garnering 500 million in sales worldwide. Several of her novels and screenplays were made into films and television mini-series. Her most successful book was 1983’s “Hollywood Wives” that hit #1 on the “New York Times” bestseller list, sold over 15 million copies and became a hit television series starring Candice Bergen and Suzanne Somers. Jackie updated the format in 2001 to “Hollywood Wives: The New Generation,” also made into a television movie starring Farrah Fawcett.
Jackie’s last novel was “The Santangelos,” the last of a series, published in 2015. She died that same year after a six-year battle with breast cancer. It is said that only her three daughters knew about the cancer and that she finally told her sister about it two weeks before she died. Her family has recently put her custom-designed Beverly Hills mansion on the market.
Jackie purchased the land for her dream home in the late 1980s for $3 million, but it wasn’t until 1991 that the contemporary mansion was built. By that time, Jackie had been inside practically every star-studded mansion at Hollywood parties and knew exactly what she wanted. The Collins sisters thrived on glamour and Jackie wanted to be surrounded by it.
Sited on a prime gated lot of just under an acre, the 21,784-square-foot home has eight bedrooms, fifteen baths and a dramatic two-story entry art gallery that connects to major rooms. Included is a guest apartment, offices, gym, screening room and a large chef’s kitchen with three islands. The master suite attests to Jackie’s glamorous lifestyle with living room, office, his-and-her baths and large walk-in closets. The balconies overlook the grounds with views of the Hollywood Hills.
The perfect setting for a Jackie Collins novel, her custom Hollywood mansion is priced at $24.5 million. Susan Smith and Brett Lawyer of Hilton & Hyland, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, hold the listing.
Courtesy of toptenrealestatedeals.com
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