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 Zwei auf gleichem Weg (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 Der Detektiv (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 Die wilden Jahre (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 Jung, hübsch und hemmungslos (1970). Then she co-starred with Alan Alda in the well-reviewed but commercially underperforming horror movie, Null Uhr fünf - Frauenleiche in der Badewanne (1971). In 1973 she became recognized in Europe as a serious actress when she played the lead in Truffaut's Die amerikanische Nacht (1973). However, it would be several years before her talents would be taken seriously in the US. Though she scored another domestic hit with Mord im 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 - Ich bin der Größte (1973), Die Sonntagsfrau (1975) and Tag der Abrechnung (1976).
Jacqueline's stunning looks and figure made quite a splash in Die Tiefe (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 Der große Grieche (1978), a thinly disguised fictionalization of the marriage of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Aristotle Onassis, and Die Schlemmerorgie (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 Der Tag, an dem die Welt unterging (1980) and Inchon (1981), but her well-received turn opposite Candice Bergen in Die wilden Reichen (1981) between those two films helped gain her recognition as a serious actress from American audiences. She rebounded neatly with Class - Vom Klassenzimmer zur Klassefrau (1983) and Unter dem Vulkan (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 Versteckt (1984), then appeared on network TV in adaptations of Anna Karenina (1985) with Christopher Reeve and Napoleon und Josephine - Eine Liebesgeschichte (1987) with Armand Assante. In 1989 she co-starred in the raunchy yet witty comedy Luxus, Sex und Lotterleben (1989) and the erotic thriller Wilde Orchidee (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 Crime Broker - Ein heißkaltes Paar (1993) and Herz im Zwiespalt (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 Biester (1995). She held roles in period pieces like Gefährliche Schönheit - Die Kurtisane von Venedig (1998), as well as the Biblical epics Die Bibel - Jesus (1999) and Am Anfang (2000). Other notable credits included the miniseries Jeanne d'Arc - Die Frau des Jahrtausends (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: Schönheit hat ihren Preis (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 Im Himmel trägt man hohe Schuhe (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, Im Hier und Jetzt: Der beste Tag meines Lebens (2018) with Sarah Jessica Parker, and Asher (2018) with Ron Perlman and Famke Janssen, as well as the Amazon original movie Tanz zum Ruhm (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.
