Jacqueline Bisset (born September 13, 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. Bisset transitioned from an international sex symbol and screen siren in the late 1960s and 1970s into one of mainstream cinema’s most acclaimed and enduring dramatic actresses by the 1980s.
After breaking into Hollywood in the late 1960s with roles in Bullitt (1968) alongside Steve McQueen and The Sweet Ride (1968), she dominated 1970s cinema across multiple genres. Bisset starred as pregnant flight attendant Gwen Meighen in Airport (1970), one of the highest-grossing films of the decade that launched the 70s disaster film genre. She earned serious critical respect working with European auteur François Truffaut in Day for Night (La Nuit américaine, 1973), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Her performance as Julie Baker cemented her status in international art cinema.
In The Deep (1977), her opening underwater scene wearing a thin white T-shirt became a global sensation. Newsweek declared her “the most beautiful actress of all time,” and the movie popularized the wet T-shirt trend worldwide, though Bisset often expressed frustration that media focus fixated on her physical appearance rather than her performance. She appeared in Agatha Christie’s star-studded adaptation Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination.
In the 1980s, Bisset deliberately shifted toward complex, mature roles that showcased her versatility and dramatic range. She starred opposite Candice Bergen in George Cukor’s final film, Rich and Famous (1981), portraying an ambitious, uncompromising novelist. She delivered a bold performance in Class (1983) as an attractive older woman engaged in an affair with her son’s prep school roommate (played by Andrew McCarthy). She reteamed with director John Huston for Under the Volcano (1984), starring alongside Albert Finney. Her tragic performance as Yvonne Firmin brought critical acclaim.
Recognizing the changing roles available for women in studio films, Bisset took on major television roles, notably starring as Josephine de Beauharnais in the acclaimed miniseries Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987).
Throughout both decades, Bisset maintained a reputation for privacy and independence, consistently refusing to conform to typical Hollywood studio expectations while balancing American blockbusters with European auteur cinema.
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