Life with Peter Collins
For 18 months, Louise King lived the dream as Mrs before her racing driver husband’s tragic death. This is their life, in pictures from her family album
Louise King Collins is the beautiful actress who married a Ferrari Formula 1 driver – but was then widowed by his fatal accident. She knows about tragedy and yet, as she welcomes me into her beautiful Florida house, her smile is contagious, and she’s happy to talk about her life with Peter Collins.
Back then Louise was an actress in US theatres, but she was involved with cars too. ‘I met Donald Healey, and in 1953 I bought one of his cars. During the week I was acting and for fun I went racing in the SCCA races; I even competed on a mountain rally in a Volvo with Denise McCluggage. The racing community was interesting, with a very young Steve McQueen driving his MG, me in my Austin-Healey and a wonderful group of drivers. The community was not very big, and on one occasion I met Stirling Moss. I don’t remember if we were in Nassau for the racing week or at Sebring, but we became friends and it was through him that I met Peter.’
That was in 1957. ‘I was working in Miami, Peter was between races and he stopped over with Masten Gregory. Stirling Moss had suggested he should invite me out for dinner after the show so, after my performance, I joined the table where he was sitting with a mutual friend. I knew who he was, but he did not know me. We chatted for a while before Peter stood up, saying that he had to go because he had a date for dinner! I got quite upset, asking who he was supposed to have dinner with. “With Louise King!” he said. The ice was broken and we spent a fantastic evening.’ The pair were married within days.
‘Peter and I began our life together visiting family and friends between races in America. We bought a Mercury station wagon [pictured above] that we shipped to England for the racing season. We then sold it to Duncan Hamilton when we bought a Lancia Flaminia. And the Lancia is, to my knowledge, the reason why Ferrari gave us the 250 Spider. Enzo Ferrari was a lovely man; he offered us one of his houses to stay in while we were in Modena. But he was upset at Peter driving the Lancia, so he presented us with one of his cars.’
Louise and Peter used the Ferrari as an everyday car. ‘Our life seemed quite normal: racing, friends, our boat in Monte Carlo. We realised that something special was happening when, in Rome with our friend Peter Ustinov, we were chased by paparazzi – something we were not used to.’
Then there was the friendship between Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn, so famous that a book has been written about it. ‘Peter and I were the safe corner for Mike, who was suffering from some health issues. We had a lot of fun together, and he was an important part of our life.’
Then came Peter’s crash at the Nürburgring on 3 August 1958. ‘I remember my fear; me asking to see him, and, at just the sight of a very white foot, understanding that the great love of my life was dead. I remember going to see Mike, a lot of confusion and crying.’
Five months later, Mike Hawthorn too was dead, having crashed his Jaguar on the Guildford bypass. ‘He was driving back to London to meet me. I was waiting for him at my hotel when the manager came to tell me of his accident.’
The fairy tale was over. ‘I left the world of racing as Louise Collins, to go back to a normal life, and I returned to acting in New York as Louise King. It saved my life. In 1962 I moved to Toronto as an anchor for TheTodayShow, supposedly for six months, and I stayed for more than ten years. Looking back, those 18 months with Peter were the most amazing time a woman could have dreamed of.’