|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Winnifred Jacqueline Fraser-Bisset |
Date of Birth: September 13, 1944 |
| Status:
N/A
|
Partner:
N/A |
| Profession:
Actor |
| << Add Jacqueline Bisset To Your Favorites |
|
Full Jacqueline Bisset Biography
Jacqueline Bisset has been a renowned international film star since the late 1960s. She was first noted as a stunning on-screen beauty, but over time has become known as a true actress. Bisset has worked with directors John Huston, François Truffaut, George Cukor and Roman Polanksi. Her co-stars have included Anthony Quinn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Newman, Leelee Sobieski, Armand Assante, Candice Bergen,
Many people assume that Bisset is from France, but she was brought up in England and had to study to learn French. Her mother is French and was an attorney before being married. As a child Jacqueline studied ballet. In her teenage years she took care of her ailing mother who was diagnosed with disseminating sclerosis, and worked to support her when her parents divorced. She has said that she considers this to have been a character-strengthening experience. She took an early interest in film, and began a modeling career to help pay for acting lessons.
In 1967 Bisset gained her first critical attention in Two for the Road, and in that same year she also appeared in the popular James Bond spoof Casino Royale, portraying Miss Goodthighs. In 1968 her career got a boost when Mia Farrrow unexpectedly dropped out of the shooting of The Detective when Farrow's marriage to co-star Frank Sinatra was on the rocks -- her role was then given to Bisset, who received special billing in the film's credits. In the following year she played opposite Steve McQueen in the popular action film Bullitt.
In 1973 Bisset became recognized as a serious actress in Europe when she played a lead character in Truffaut's "Day for Night" ( Nuit americaine, La (1973) ). However it would be several years before her talents would be taken seriously in the USA.
Jacqueline's stunning good looks made quite a big splash in Deep, The (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".
Many Americans began to recognize Bisset as a serious actress in her performance in Rich and Famous (1981). She received Golden Globe nominations for her roles in Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978) and Under the Volcano (1984). In 1996 she was nominated for a Cesar award, the French equivalent of the Oscar, for her role in Ceremonie, La (1995).
Bisset has never married, but has been involved in several long-term romantic relationships. She continues to make numerous films, and frequently participates in film festivals and award ceremonies around the world.
Jacqueline's friend and former business agent Guy McElwaine has commented: "Only when she either retires or gets those parts that Katie Hepburn played when she was Jackie's age, that we'll recognize how really gifted she is and what an important part of the last 25 years she's been." |
|
|
Additional Jacqueline Bisset Biography
Jacqueline Bisset (born Winifred Jacqueline Fraser-Bisset on 13 September 1944) is an English actress.
Bisset was born in Weybridge, Surrey, England to Max Fraser-Bisset, a Scottish General Practitioner, and the former Arlette Alexander, a lawyer of French and English descent; Bisset's mother cycled from Paris and boarded a British trooper in order to escape the Germans during WWII. Bisset has a brother, Max. Bisset's mother taught her to speak French fluently and she was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London. When Bisset was a teenager, her mother was diagnosed with disseminating sclerosis. Bisset's parents divorced in 1968, after 28 years of marriage. Bisset subsequently moved in to help her mother. She had taken ballet lessons as a young child, and now began taking acting lessons and fashion modelling to pay for them.
In 1967, Bisset was cast in the critically acclaimed movie Two for the Road. Next, she participated in the James Bond satire, Casino Royale (1967), as Miss Goodthighs.
In 1973, she appeared in François Truffaut's Day for Night, where she earned the respect of European critics and moviegoers as a serious actress. In 1977, Bisset made great strides towards becoming a better known entertainer in America with her movie The Deep (1977), co-starring Robert Shaw, where her appearance swimming underwater wearing only a T-shirt helped make the film a box office smash, leading the producer Jon Peters to say, "That T-shirt made me a rich man", and led many to credit her with popularizing the wet T-shirt contest. At the time, Newsweek magazine declared her to be "the most beautiful film actress of all time". About that same time, a small Dutch-produced film she had made some years earlier was re-released in the United States under the title "Secrets". That movie featured the only extensive nude scenes of Bisset's career and the producers were able to cash in on the fame she had later achieved.
By 1978, she was a household name. She earned her first Golden Globe nomination for the comedy Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?. Soon thereafter, she played in the movies Rich and Famous (1981) with Candice Bergen, and Under the Volcano with Albert Finney (1984), for which she earned her a second Golden Globe award nomination. In 1996, she was nominated for a César Award, France's version of the Oscars, for her role in La Cérémonie. During her career, Bisset has worked with such well-respected directors as Truffaut, John Huston, George Cukor and Roman Polanski. Several of her movies are French or Italian productions.
Bisset has also appeared in many made-for-TV movies, especially during the past ten years, some of which have been quite successful. One of her later TV movies, released in 2003, was America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story, in which she portrayed Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Bisset's most recent television work was a recurring role as the mysterious James, during the fourth season of the FX series Nip/Tuck.
Though she has been romantically linked with many actors, Bisset has never married. Bisset is the godmother to actress Angelina Jolie. She appeared with Jolie in the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005); however, the scenes never made the final cut.
Unlike many actresses of her generation who have had difficulty finding work after the age of 40, Bisset made a seamless transition from leading lady to character actor. She remains very much in demand both in Hollywood and Europe. She told a Bermuda newspaper in 2004:
"This film business, perhaps more so in America than in Europe, has always been about young sexuality. It's not true of theatre, but in America, film audiences are young and they go to the cinema to see the sort of romance or adventure that appeals to them. It's not an intellectual cinema in America. But one mustn't be too greedy. One wants to be stimulated by the work as long as there is something to give. I think you have to be as flexible as possible. Perhaps you don't get handed the big American productions, but, quite honestly, who would want to be in a lot of them? Many of them are just puerile teenage filler, and they're not fascinating to be in. To be used in a part without depth is a frustrating feeling, when you know you have something to give, and the camera just sort of brushes past you, and doesn't get what you have to give. Most actresses I know are frustrated, but you have to adapt to the reality. I go and find a small part in something I find interesting, or find an independent film".
In the NBC TV show Cheers, the episode "Bar Bet" has Sam Malone faced with a bet made with an old drinking buddy a long time ago. The bet: he would marry Jacqueline Bisset by a certain date or lose his bar. Rather than losing the bet because he'll never marry the Jacqueline Bisset, or welching on the bet and having to admit under oath that he was drunk when he made the bet, he instead locates an American woman with the exact same name and brings her back to Boston. |
|
| Add Jacqueline Bisset Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
Jacqueline Bisset Quote(s)
| Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. |
|
| Add Jacqueline Bisset Review/Comment
|
HQ Jacqueline Bisset Pictures (15) | Random Jacqueline Bisset Picture
|
| << Back to the Jacqueline Bisset Homepage |
|
