Jacqueline Bisset
Birthdate: Sep 13, 1944
Birthplace: Weybridge, Surrey, England, UK
Jacqueline Bisset has been an international film star since the late '60s. She received her first roles mainly because of her stunning beauty, but over time she has become a fine actress respected by fans and critics alike. Bisset has worked with directors John Huston, François Truffaut, George Cukor and Roman Polanski. Her co-stars have included Anthony Quinn, Paul Newman, Nick Nolte, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Kenneth Branagh and Marcello Mastroianni.
Her somewhat French-sounding name has led many to assume that she is from France, but she was brought up in England and had to study to learn French. Her mother was French and was an attorney before being married. As a child Jacqueline studied ballet. During her teenage years her father left the family when her mother was diagnosed with disseminating sclerosis; Jacqueline worked as a model to support her ailing mother and eventually her parents divorced, an experience she has said she considered character-strengthening. She took an early interest in film, and her modeling career helped pay for acting lessons.
In 1967 Bisset gained her first critical attention in Two for the Road (1967), and that same year appeared in the popular James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967), playing Miss Goodthighs. In 1968 her career got a boost when Mia Farrow unexpectedly dropped out of the shooting of The Detective (1968); Farrow's marriage to co-star Frank Sinatra was on the rocks, and her role was eventually given to Bisset, who received special billing in the film's credits. In the following year she earned a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer for The Sweet Ride (1968) and gained even more attention playing opposite Steve McQueen in the popular action film Bullitt (1968). In 1970 she was featured in the star-studded disaster film Airport (1970) and had the main role in The Grasshopper (1970). Then she co-starred with Alan Alda in the well-reviewed but commercially underperforming horror movie, The Mephisto Waltz (1971). In 1973 she became recognized in Europe as a serious actress when she played the lead in Truffaut's Day for Night (1973). However, it would be several years before her talents would be taken seriously in the US. Though she scored another domestic hit with Murder on the Orient Express (1974), her part in it, as had often been the case, was decorative. She did appear to good effect in Believe in Me (1971), Le Magnifique (1973), The Sunday Woman (1975) and St. Ives (1976).
Jacqueline's stunning looks and figure made quite a splash in The Deep (1977). Her underwater swimming scenes in that movie inspired the worldwide wet T-shirt craze, and Newsweek magazine declared her "the most beautiful film actress of all time." The film's producer, Peter Guber, said "That T-shirt made me a rich man." However, she hated the wet T-shirt scenes because she felt exploited. At the time of filming she was not told that the filmmakers would shoot the scenes in such a provocative way, and she felt tricked. On the plus side, the huge success of the picture made Bisset officially bankable. She was next seen in high-profile roles in The Greek Tycoon (1978), a thinly disguised fictionalization of the marriage of Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis, and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Comedy.
In the early '80s, Bisset starred in the box office disasters When Time Ran Out... (1980) and Inchon (1981), but her well-received turn opposite Candice Bergen in Rich and Famous (1981) between those two films helped gain her recognition as a serious actress from American audiences. She rebounded neatly with Class (1983) and Under the Volcano (1984), getting a Golden Globe nomination as Best Supporting Actress for the latter. She also earned praise for her work in the excellent made-for-cable WWII drama Forbidden (1984), then appeared on network TV in adaptations of Anna Karenina (1985) with Christopher Reeve and Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987) with Armand Assante. In 1989 she co-starred in the raunchy yet witty comedy Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989) and the erotic thriller Wild Orchid (1989), neither of which fared too well, but her output remained consistent. As she transitioned seamlessly out of her ingenue years, smaller-scale productions such as CrimeBroker (1993) and Leave of Absence (1994) would provide Bisset with plum roles, even if they went largely unseen.
In 1996 she was nominated for a César Award, the French equivalent of the Oscar, for her performance in Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie (1995). She held roles in period pieces like Dangerous Beauty (1998), as well as the Biblical epics Jesus (1999) and In the Beginning (2000). Other notable credits included the miniseries Joan of Arc (1999) alongside Leelee Sobieski, which gained her an Emmy nomination, and The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), which premiered at Sundance but unfortunately was not picked up for theatrical distribution. In 2005 Jacqueline was back on the big screen, playing Keira Knightley's mother in the Domino Harvey biopic Domino (2005) for Tony Scott. In 2006 she appeared in the fourth season of Nip/Tuck (2003) as the ruthless extortionist "James." Bisset then turned in strong performances in Boaz Yakin's disturbing independent drama Death in Love (2008) and the telepic An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving (2008), garnering accolades for both. In 2013 she appeared in BBC's program Dancing on the Edge (2013), for which she finally won her first Golden Globe. She followed that up with the movies Welcome to New York (2014) with Gérard Depardieu and Miss You Already (2015) with Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette.
2016 saw the long-awaited release of Linda Yellen's comedy The Last Film Festival (2016), where Jacqueline was a riot as a washed-up Italian diva alongside Dennis Hopper in his final role. Since then she's kept busy on the indie circuit, appearing in Backstabbing for Beginners (2018) with Ben Kingsley, Here and Now (2018) with Sarah Jessica Parker, and Asher (2018) with Ron Perlman and Famke Janssen, as well as the Amazon original movie Birds of Paradise (2021) and a title role in Loren & Rose (2022).
Bisset has never married, but has been involved in long-term romantic relationships with Canadian actor Michael Sarrazin, Moroccan entrepreneur Victor Drai, Russian ballet dancer Alexander Godunov, Swiss actor Vincent Perez and Turkish martial arts instructor Emin Boztepe. She continues to make numerous films, and frequently participates in film festivals and award ceremonies around the world.
Filmography
actor
Previous (67)
- 2023 | Loren & Rose
Loren & Rose
The appetizer is an introduction, the dessert is a farewell in this story of an indelible bond forged between a promising young filmmaker and an iconic actress.
- 2021 | Birds of Paradise
- 2021 | Madeleine Collins
- 2021 | Blood Brothers: Civil War
Blood Brothers: Civil War
Two brothers' relationship strains when the younger one receives news of a strange inheritance complicating their competition for a mysterious young woman who arrives on their island. The entire family reaches a breaking point bro...
- 2020 | The Lodger
- 2018 | Asher
- 2018 | Backstabbing for Beginners
- 2018 | Magic Lantern
- 2018 | Sol y sombra
- 2019 | Head Full of HoneyasVivian
Head Full of Honey
A man suffering from Alzheimer's embarks on a final road trip with his granddaughter.
- 2018 | Here and Now
Here and Now
A singer (Sarah Jessica Parker) in New York City gets a grim diagnosis that puts her life and dreams into perspective.
- 2018 | Bullitt: 2018 Re-releaseasCathy
Bullitt: 2018 Re-release
An all guts, no glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.
- 2017 | Double Lover
Double Lover
Chloé, a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.
- 2017 | Murder on the Orient ExpressasCountess Elena Andrenyi
Murder on the Orient Express
When a murder occurs on the train on which he's travelling, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case.
- 2017 |
- 2016 | Cult Queen Mary Woronov from Warhol to Corman
- 2016 | The Last Film Festival
- 2015 | Peter and John
- 2014 | Welcome to New York
- 2013 | Shelter Me
- 2011 | Mulberry Child
- 2008 | Death in Love
- 2008 | Nick Nolte: No Exit
- 2005 | Dominoas Sophie Wynn
- 2005 | The Fine Art of Love: Mine Ha-Ha
- 2004 | Fascination
- 2003 | Swing
- 2001 | The Sleepy Time Gal
- 1999 | Les gens qui s'aiment
- 1995 | La Cérémonie
- 1993 | Est & Ouest: Les paradis perdus
- 1993 | Hoffman's Hunger
- 1993 | Les marmottes
- 1991 | Rossini! Rossini!
- 1989 | Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
- 1989 | Wild Orchid
- 1988 | La maison de jade
- 1987 | High Season
- 1984 | Forbidden
- 1984 | Notes from Under the Volcano
- 1984 | Observations Under the Volcano
- 1984 | Under the Volcanoas Yvonne Firmin
- 1983 | Class
- 1981 | Inchon
- 1981 | Rich and Famous
- 1980 | When Time Ran Out...
- 1979 | Together?
- 1978 | The Greek Tycoon
- 1978 | Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
- 1977 | The Deep
- 1976 | St. Ives
- 1975 | End of the Game
- 1975 | The Spiral Staircase
- 1975 | The Sunday Woman
- 1973 | Day for Night
- 1973 | Le Magnifique
- 1973 | The Thief Who Came to Dinner
- 1972 | Stand Up and Be Counted
- 1971 | Believe in Me
- 1971 | Secrets
- 1971 | The Mephisto Waltz
- 1970 | The Grasshopper
- 1969 | Secret World
- 1969 | The First Time
- 1968 | Bullittas Cathy
- 1968 | The Sweet Ride
- 1967 | The Cape Town Affair
