Los Angeles, Sept. 20 (Reuters): Jackie Collins, the best-selling author of dozens of steamy novels who depicted the boardrooms and bedrooms of Hollywood's power crowd, died yesterday of breast cancer at age 77, her family said.

The British-born Collins, younger sister of actress Joan Collins, died in Los Angeles, said her spokesperson Melody Korenbrot.

Collins is survived by three daughters.

Collins, who wrote about characters driven by lust, power and greed, sold more than 500 millions copies of her books in 40 countries and has some 30 New York Times bestsellers, according to her own website.

"I'm a storyteller. I'm not a literary writer and I never pretended to be," Collins said in 2008.

Some of her most successful novels included the 1983 Hollywood Wives, about women living glamorous lives behind the scenes of the industry, and the 1985 Lucky and 1990 Lady Boss from her series focused on the ravishing and ambitious character Lucky Santangelo, who was born into an organised crime family.

Collins faced controversy during her career, writing novels so steamy they outraged political figures from Britain to China.

Her debut novel, The World is Full of Married Men, was reportedly deemed "filthy and disgusting" by author Barbara Cartland and banned in Australia. Collins told Reuters the book was "way before its time" with its tale of a woman who cheats on her husband and another who likes sex with married men.