Best-selling author Jackie Collins, who has died from breast cancer aged 77, was a member of a Jewish theatrical dynasty with its roots in music hall.

The London-born younger sister of actress Dame Joan Collins kept her illness secret for six years before going public a few days before her death. Dame Joan was said to be devastated.

Ms Collins told US publication People magazine: “Looking back, I’m not sorry about anything I did. I did it my way, as Frank Sinatra would say. I’ve written five books since the diagnosis. I’ve lived my life, I’ve travelled all over the world.

Known for writing steamy “bonkbusters”, she produced 32 books, selling over 500 million copies. Her most successful novels, such as The Stud and Hollywood Wives, focused on the sex lives of the rich and famous.

Her first book, The World if Full of Married Men, was published in 1968. She said she completed it only after being encouraged by impresario Oscar Lerman, her husband for 26 years. Romance writer Barbara Cartland said it was “nasty, filthy and disgusting”.

Ms Collins first opted for an acting career, a choice which followed in the family tradition. Grandfather Isaac Harts was a booking manager on the large music hall circuit in South Africa, where he met Jackie’s grandmother, Hetty Assenheim, an actress and dancer. Ms Collins’s father Joseph was also a theatrical agent.

She leaves three children and six grandchildren. In a statement, her family wrote: “She lived a wonderfully full life and was adored by her family, friends and the millions of readers who she has been entertaining for the past four decades. 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.”