Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. With a career spanning nearly 8 decades, Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by the then Prince of Wales, Charles III.
Stephen Weaver Collins is a former American actor. He is known for playing Eric Camden on the WB/CW television series 7th Heaven from 1996 to 2007. Afterwards, Collins played the roles of Dayton King on the ABC television series No Ordinary Family and Gene Porter in the NBC television series Revolution, father of Elizabeth Mitchell's character, Rachel Matheson. Before 7th Heaven, Collins was known for his roles as Commander Willard Decker in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture and fighter pilot Jake Cutter in the ABC television series Tales of the Gold Monkey.
Jacqueline Jill Collins was an English romance novelist and actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there. She wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times bestsellers list. Her books have sold more than 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television miniseries. She was the younger sister of Dame Joan Collins.
Kim Delaney is an American actress known for her starring role as Detective Diane Russell on the ABC drama television series NYPD Blue, for which she won an Emmy Award. Early in her career, she played the role of Jenny Gardner in the ABC daytime television drama All My Children. She later had leading roles in the short lived TV drama Philly, part of the first season of CSI: Miami, and the first six seasons of Army Wives. She also appeared in Tour of Duty, Season 2 and the first two episodes of Season 3, as reporter Alex Devlin.
Lesley-Anne Down is a British actress, singer and former model. She made her motion picture debut in the 1969 drama film The Smashing Bird I Used to Know and later appeared in films Assault (1971), Countess Dracula (1971) and Pope Joan (1972). She achieved fame as Georgina Worsley in the ITV period drama series, Upstairs, Downstairs (1973–75).
Sydney Margaret Penny is an American actress. She began her career as a child performer appearing in made-for-television movies. She made her big screen debut in the Western film Pale Rider directed by Clint Eastwood. She received total six Young Artist Awards nominations, winning two for playing Young Meggie Cleary in the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1984), and for Pale Rider. Penny also starred in the sitcom The New Gidget (1986–1988), and played Bernadette Soubirous in the French drama film Bernadette (1988) and its sequel The Passion of Bernadette (1990) both directed by Jean Delannoy.
S. Epatha Merkerson is an American actress. She has received accolades for her work, including an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, four NAACP Image Awards, two Obie Awards, and two Tony Award nominations. She is known for her portrayal of NYPD Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on the NBC police procedural drama series Law & Order, a role she played from 1993 to 2010, appearing in 388 episodes of the series. She is also known for playing Reba the Mail Lady on Pee-wee's Playhouse and Sharon Goodwin in the NBC medical drama Chicago Med since the series premiered in November 2015
Jack Scalia is an American actor. Scalia is perhaps best known for his frequent appearances in prime-time television series and television movies in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as feature films.
Armand Anthony Assante Jr. is an American actor. He played mobster John Gotti in the 1996 HBO television film Gotti, Odysseus in the 1997 miniseries adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, Nietzsche in When Nietzsche Wept, and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in 1982's I, the Jury. He's been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Jenifer Jeanette Lewis is an American actress. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a back-up singer for Bette Midler before appearing in films Beaches (1988) and Sister Act (1992). Lewis is known for playing roles of mothers in the films What's Love Got to Do With It (1993), Poetic Justice (1993), The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Brothers (2001), The Cookout (2004), Think Like a Man (2012) and in the sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013) and The Wedding Ringer (2015), as well as in The Temptations miniseries (1998).
Jason Michael Gedrick is an American actor best known for his work on the television series Murder One and Boomtown, and the motion picture Iron Eagle as Doug Masters.
Kim Darby is an American actress best known for her roles as Mattie Ross in True Grit (1969) and Jenny Meyer in Better Off Dead (1985).
Stephen Robert Macht is an American television and film actor.
Steven Robert Weber is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Brian Hackett on the television series Wings, voicing Charlie B. Barkin in All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series, and portraying Jack Torrance in the TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining. He had a recurring role on iZombie as Vaughn du Clark. He played Mayor Douglas Hamilton on NCIS: New Orleans in a recurring role and starred as Sergeant First Class Dennis Worcester in Hamburger Hill (1987).
Bonkbuster is a term coined in 1989 by British writer Sue Limb to describe a subgenre of commercial romance novels in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as their subsequent miniseries adaptations. They have also been referred to as sex 'n' shopping or shopping and fucking novels (S&F).
Lucky Chances is a 1990 television mini-series written by Jackie Collins and based on her bestselling novels Chances and Lucky. It starred Vincent Irizarry, Sandra Bullock, Eric Braeden, Nicollette Sheridan, Anne-Marie Johnson, Phil Morris, David McCallum, Richard Anderson and Robert Duncan McNeill. It was directed by Buzz Kulik.
Chances is a 1981 novel by Jackie Collins and the first in her Santangelo novels series. The novel has three focal points, two of them focusing on the main characters of the novel and a third during the New York City blackout of 1977. The novel made the New York Times Bestseller list upon its release.
The Santangelo novels are a series of novels written by Jackie Collins, which focus on the Santangelo family, particularly Gino Santangelo, an Italian-American former gangster, and his daughter Lucky. The novels, which take place from the 1920s to the present day, are set in the world of organised crime and include the Santangelos' rivalry with the Bonnatti and Kassari families. There are nine novels in the Santangelo saga and one spin-off. Confessions of a Wild Child (2013), is a prequel depicting Lucky's teenage years, which were briefly explored in the first Santangelo novel, Chances (1981).
Drop Dead Beautiful is a 2007 novel by Jackie Collins and the sixth novel in her Santangelo novels series. The story takes place in 2000.
Nicollette Sheridan is a British-born American actress. She began her career as a fashion model before landing a role in the short-lived ABC primetime soap opera Paper Dolls in 1984, as well as starring in the romantic comedy film The Sure Thing (1985). She rose to prominence as Paige Matheson on the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing (1986–1993), for which she received two Soap Opera Digest Awards. Thereafter, Sheridan appeared in lead roles in numerous television films and miniseries, including Lucky Chances (1990), Virus (1995), and The People Next Door (1996). She also appeared in the feature films Noises Off (1992), Spy Hard (1996), Beverly Hills Ninja (1997), and Code Name: The Cleaner (2007).
