Roberta Collins

Background

Collins was born Roberta Lee Hefley in 1944.

Career

She starred in many exploitation films, including the prostitute Clara in Tobe Hooper"s Eaten Alive, and the character Matilda the Hun in the science fiction film Race 2000. Jack Hill, who directed her in The Big Doll House, once gave her as an example of "really great actresses who could have excellent careers but couldn"t get their personal lives together..she would be fantastic one day, do everything right, and then she would be out until 4 Master of Arts partying and the next day she would be useless." However her option was not picked up, something that was repeated with another studio, "so that made me want to study and become a good actress," she later said. In 1969 she was appointed Queen of the Warner Bros-Seven Arts International Film Festival in Freeport, Grand Bahamas Island.

She gained a level of fame with her appearance in the enormously popular Big Doll House.

This led to a series of roles in exploitation films. She worked in a number of non-exploitation roles as well, notably on television

In the early 1970s Collins briefly dated Glenn Ford. In the early 1990s she worked as a caregiver for Ford.

Collins died August 16, 2008 of an accidental overdose from drugs and alcohol.

In 2014, there was a tribute to Collins as part of the Street Louis Film Festival. Caged Heat was screened and there was a concert by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who played an album of songs inspired by Roberta Collins.

Achievements

• Collins won numerous beauty contests growing up and signed to a contract with a studio almost immediately after graduation from high school.

Views

Quotations: "so that made me want to study and become a good actress,".