Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and came to prominence in 1968 with roles in The Detective, Bullitt, and The Sweet Ride, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. In the 1970s, she starred in Airport (1970), The Mephisto Waltz (1971), Day for Night (1973), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Le Magnifique (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), St. Ives (1976), The Deep (1977), The Greek Tycoon (1978) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
Bisset's other film and TV credits include Rich and Famous (1981), Class (1983), her Golden Globe-nominated role in Under the Volcano (1984), her CableACE Award-nominated role in Forbidden (1985), Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), Wild Orchid (1990), her Cesar Award-nominated role in La Cérémonie (1995), Dangerous Beauty (1998), her Emmy-nominated role in the miniseries Joan of Arc (1999), Britannic (2000), The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), Domino (2005), a guest arc in the fourth season of Nip/Tuck (2006), Death in Love (2008), and the BBC miniseries Dancing on the Edge (2013), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.
Bisset has since appeared in Welcome to New York (2014), Miss You Already (2015), The Last Film Festival (2016), Backstabbing for Beginners (2018) and Birds of Paradise (2021). She received France's highest honour, the Legion of Honour, in 2010. She speaks English, French, and Italian.
Early life Bisset was born Winifred Jacqueline Fraser BissetBirths, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005; at ancestry.com in Weybridge, Surrey, England, the daughter of George Maxwell Fraser Bisset (1911–1982), a general practitioner, and Arlette Alexander (1914–1999), a lawyer-turned-housewife. Her mother was of French and English descent and her father was of Scottish descent; Bisset's mother cycled from Paris and boarded a British troopship to escape the Germans during the 1940 Battle of France.
Bisset grew up in a 17th-century country cottage in Tilehurst, near Reading, Berkshire. She has an elder brother, Max (born 1942), a Florida-based business consultant; they have a paternal half-brother named Nick (born circa 1981), who was an infant when their father died aged 70. Her mother taught her to speak French fluently, and she was educated at the in London. She took ballet lessons as a child and began taking acting lessons while working as a fashion model to pay for them. When Bisset was a teenager, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Bisset's parents divorced in 1968 after 28 years of marriage.
Career
1960s Bisset first appeared uncredited as a prospective model in The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965), directed by Richard Lester. She made her official debut the following year in Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac (1966). In 1967, Bisset had her first noticeable part in the Albert Finney/Audrey Hepburn vehicle Two for the Road, as a woman in whom Finney's character is romantically interested. It was made by 20th Century Fox, which put her under contract.Jacqueline Bisset, Lady-Swinger in Life and Films Haber, Joyce. Los Angeles Times 4 May 1969: o13. She had a more sizeable role in the James Bond satire Casino Royale, as Miss Goodthighs.
Fox cast Bisset in her first lead part in The Cape Town Affair, opposite a then-unknown James Brolin, filmed in South Africa on a low budget. She gained mainstream recognition in 1968, when she replaced Mia Farrow in The Detective opposite Frank Sinatra.Jacqueline Bisset Is a Type That Just Can't Be Typified Norma Lee Browning. Chicago Tribune10 Mar 1968: n11. The same year, she co-starred with Michael Sarrazin in The Sweet Ride, which brought her a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. She capped her year as Steve McQueen's girlfriend in the police drama Bullitt, which was among the top five highest-grossing films of the year. In 1969, Bisset was top billed in The First Time and Secret World, appearing as a blonde in the latter.
1970s In 1970, Bisset was one of many stars in the disaster film Airport; her role was that of a pregnant stewardess carrying Dean Martin's love child. It was a huge hit. Bisset had another starring part in The Grasshopper (1970), which was little seen, and was in The Mephisto Waltz (1971) with Alan Alda. She reteamed with real-life boyfriend Michael Sarrazin for the romantic drama Believe in Me, in which she played a drug addict, and had the lead in the comedy Stand Up and Be Counted (1972). More popular was The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), in which she played the daughter of Paul Newman's title character. She played the female lead in The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973) with Ryan O'Neal, stepping in for a pregnant Charlotte Rampling.
Bisset went to France to appear in François Truffaut's Day for Night (1973), earning the respect of European critics and moviegoers as a serious actress. She stayed in France to make Le Magnifique (1973) with Jean-Paul Belmondo, a hit in France but little seen in English-speaking countries. She was one of many stars in Sidney Lumet's whodunnit Murder on the Orient Express (1974), an enormous success. In Britain, she starred in a remake of The Spiral Staircase (1975). Bisset went to Germany for End of the Game (1975), co-starring Jon Voight. In Italy, she played the main character in Luigi Comencini's The Sunday Woman (1975) opposite Marcello Mastroianni. She returned to Hollywood to support Charles Bronson in St. Ives (1976).Jacqueline Bisset: Film Survivor Murphy, Mary. Los Angeles Times (8 December 1975: f18.
In 1977, Bisset gained wide publicity in America with The Deep, directed by Peter Yates, who had previously directed her in Bullitt. A marketing strategy based around Bisset appearing in some scenes underwater wearing only a white T-shirt for a top helped make the film a box-office success. Producer Peter Guber allegedly quipped, "That T-shirt made me a rich man!"Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters, Hit & Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for A Ride in Hollywood, Simon & Schuster, 1996, p. 85. Many credit her with popularising wet T-shirt contests, but Bisset herself was disappointed that the marketing of her translucent costume detracted from the film's technical achievements. About that time, a UK production, Secrets, that Bisset had made in 1971 was re-released in the United States. That movie featured the only extensive nude scenes of Bisset's career and the producers cashed in on her notoriety.
By 1978, Bisset was a household name. She earned a Golden Globe nomination that year as Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy for her performance opposite George Segal in Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, and starred with Anthony Quinn in The Greek Tycoon, playing a role based on Jackie Onassis. After these she made Together? (1979) in Italy with Terence Stamp and Maximilian Schell.
1980s Bisset appeared in some all-star films: When Time Ran Out (1980), starring alongside Paul Newman and William Holden, and Inchon (1981), with Ben Gazzara. Her fee around this time was $1 million a movie.JACQUELINE BISSET AS STAR AND PRODUCER Mann, Roderick. Los Angeles Times 23 April 1981: h7. Both When Time Ran Out and Inchon were big flops.
More popular was George Cukor's Rich and Famous (1981) with Candice Bergen, where Bisset also served as co-producer.Jacqueline Bisset on 'Rich and Famous' McBride, Joseph; McCarthy, Todd. Film Comment; New York Vol. 17, Iss. 5, (Sep/Oct 1981): 45,80. One of her best-known roles came in the coming-of-age comedy Class (1983), as a married woman having an affair with her son's (Rob Lowe) prep school roommate (Andrew McCarthy). Bisset received her third Golden Globe nomination for John Huston's Under the Volcano (1984) in the Best Supporting Actress category.
In 1984 Bisset made the wartime drama Forbidden with Jürgen Prochnow, and earned a CableACE Award nomination as Best Actress. For television she played the title role in Anna Karenina (1985), opposite Christopher Reeve, and did an abortion drama, Choices (1986). Bisset portrayed Joséphine de Beauharnais in the miniseries Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987) with Armand Assante. She also had the lead in some comedies: High Season (1987) and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989), taking over for Faye Dunaway due to scheduling conflicts. Between those she made La maison de jade (1988) in France with Vincent Perez. She was Carré Otis' boss in the erotic thriller Wild Orchid (1989) starring Mickey Rourke.
1990s During the early 1990s, Bisset shot projects on multiple continents, co-starring in Mario Monicelli's Rossini! Rossini! (1991), a biopic of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini; with Martin Sheen for a Paris-set TV movie called The Maid (1991); with Elliott Gould in the Dutch miniseries Hoffman's honger (1993); with Jean-Hugues Anglade in the French language film Les marmottes (1993); and with one of Japan's top stars, Masaya Kato in the Australian TV film Crimebroker (1993). "I used to work [in the states] a lot, and then I started to go and do more of the intimate little films I wanted to do that I didn't find here," she said in 1994. "I started to have two lives, really. I was able to cover more of the ground that I wanted to as an actress. But now I need to do more things that get seen.""Bisset ends her TV 'Leave'". The Reporter from Fond du Lac. 8 May 1994. Bisset returned to North American screens with the TV film Leave of Absence (1994), opposite Brian Dennehy.
In 1995, Bisset was nominated for a César Award for her role in the French film La Cérémonie, directed by Claude Chabrol.JACQUELINE BISSET, HOLLYWOOD 'LIONESS': [ALL Edition] BRIDGET BYRNE Entertainment News Wire. Sun Sentinel 24 Sep 1996: 3.E. She did a couple of period pieces, playing a spinster in 1890s New York in Linda Yellen's End of Summer (1997), and a retired courtesan in 16th-century Venice in Dangerous Beauty (1998) with Catherine McCormack.
In 1999, Bisset appeared in two high-calibre television projects, playing the Virgin Mary in Jesus and Isabelle d'Arc in Joan of Arc, opposite Jeremy Sisto and Leelee Sobieski in the respective titular roles. Bisset earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for the latter performance.Jacqueline Bisset does Hollywood her way Davis, Ivor. The Ottawa Citizen; Ottawa, Ont. [Ottawa, Ont]9 Nov 2000: E8. Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) was an independent film featuring Bisset in an ensemble cast, loosely retelling Shakespeare's Hamlet in modern-day Los Angeles.
2000s
Bisset returned to the Biblical genre with In the Beginning (2000), playing Sarah, wife of Abraham. She had the leading role in Christopher Münch's The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), in which she gave an understated portrayal of a terminally ill woman trying to put her life in order. Co-starring Nick Stahl, Seymour Cassel and Amy Madigan, The Sleepy Time Gal premiered on SundanceTV and was cited by the Village Voice in its annual survey of the year's best undistributed films. Bisset described it as her best work. One of her later TV movies, in 2003, was America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story, in which she portrayed Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. She did guest shots on Hey Arnold!, Ally McBeal and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had key roles in the independent features Swing (2003), Latter Days (2003) and Fascination (2004).