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Jacqueline Bisset

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Jacqueline Bisset (13 September, 1944) is a British actress, born Winifred Jacqueline Fraser-Bisset in Weybridge, Surrey, England to Max Fraser- Bisset, a General Practitioner of Scottish descent, and the former Arlette Alexander, a French-born attorney.

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[edit] Early life and career

Her mother taught her to speak French fluently and she was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London, leading many to believe erroneously that she was born in France. When Bisset was a teenager, her mother was diagnosed with disseminating sclerosis. After her parents divorced, she 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 spoof Casino Royale (1967), as Miss Goodthighs.

In 1968, Mia Farrow dropped out of a movie named The Detective (1968), and the role went to Bisset. She was cast opposite Steve McQueen in Bullitt in 1968.

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"<ref>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.</ref>, 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." Her wet T-shirt scene also made an adolescent Rosie O'Donnell realize that she was a lesbian.[1] [2]

[edit] At home on two continents

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 Polański. Several of her movies are French or Italian productions.

[edit] Television

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 Kennedy.

She is currently guest starring as James on the FX show Nip/Tuck. As the season progresses the audience learns that James is a leader of an organ thieving ring. James poses her ring as an escort service which sends attractive women after their targets. Later, we find out that she must answer to a higher power; she is an underling in the organ black market and her employers, French Asian men, have threatened her life on several occassions and beat her up because she is not meeting her quotas. The increased pressure is beginning to make her character more sloppy.

[edit] Personal

Though she has been romantically linked with many actors, Bisset has never married. Bisset is the godmother to actress Angelina Jolie. She acted with Jolie in the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005); however, the scenes never made the final cut.

[edit] Thoughts from an industry veteran

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<ref>http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040514/MIDOCEAN/105140096&SearchID=73242640659144 Bisset Resurfaces: 2004 Bermuda career interview</ref>:

"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."

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Pop culture references

  • 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. Rather than losing the bet because he'll never marry the Jacqueline Bisset, he instead locates an American woman with the exact same name and brings her back to Boston.

[edit] Notes

<References/>

[edit] External links

es:Jacqueline Bisset fr:Jacqueline Bisset it:Jacqueline Bisset ja:ジャクリーン・ビセット ru:Биссет, Жаклин

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