Mary and Madeleine Collinson were born in 1952 in Malta, moving to England in 1969 as teenagers. The following year they appeared as the joint “Miss October” in Playboy magazine, becoming the publication’s first identical twin centerfold models. The sisters used their Playboy pictorial as a springboard for a film career. They took roles in several experimental films with leanings towards the “freeform hippie movement” of the time. In 1971, they were cast in the Hammer horror film Twins of Evil as twin vampires alongside Hammer heavyweight Peter Cushing. The film was the third installment of the trilogy based on the 1872 novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. The previous two entries featured a lesbian storyline that was absent in Twins of Evil. The film was given mixed reviews at the time of its release, but has since developed a cult following. It was the Collinson sisters’ last hurrah in their fleeting acting career.
Madeleine married and returned to Malta to raise a family. Later, she fell ill and was diagnosed with advanced emphysema. She was admitted to a Maltese hospital and died when her ventilator lost power during a blackout. She was 62.
Mary married and lived in Milan, Italy with her family. Out of the spotlight for years, she passed away from bronchopneumonia in 2021 — seven years after her sister.