Bisset was born Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset[1] inWeybridge,Surrey, England, the daughter of George Maxwell Fraser Bisset (1911–1982), ageneral practitioner, and Arlette Alexander (1914–1999), a lawyer-turned-housewife.[2] Her mother was of French and English descent and her father was of Scottish descent;[3][4] Bisset's mother cycled from Paris and boarded a Britishtroopship to escape the Germans during the 1940Battle of France.[5]
Bisset grew up in a 17th-century country cottage inTilehurst, nearReading, Berkshire.[citation needed] She has an older brother, Max (b. 1942), a Florida-based business consultant;[6] they have a paternal half-brother named Nick (b. circa 1981), who was an infant when their father died aged 70.[7] Her mother taught her to speak French fluently, and she was educated at theLycée Français de Londres 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 withmultiple sclerosis.[8][9]
Bisset's parents divorced in 1968 after 28 years of marriage.[5]
In 1977, Bisset gained wide publicity in America withThe Deep, directed byPeter Yates, who had previously directed her inBullitt. 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.[14] ProducerPeter Guber allegedly quipped, "That T-shirt made me a rich man!"[15] Many credit her with popularisingwet T-shirt contests,[16] but Bisset herself was disappointed that the marketing of her translucent costume detracted from the film's technical achievements.[14] 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.
Bisset appeared in some all-star films:When Time Ran Out (1980), starring alongside Paul Newman andWilliam Holden, andInchon (1981), withBen Gazzara. Her fee around this time was $1 million a movie.[17] BothWhen Time Ran Out andInchon were big flops.
During the early 1990s, Bisset shot projects on multiple continents, co-starring inMario Monicelli'sRossini! Rossini! (1991), a biopic of Italian composerGioachino Rossini; withMartin Sheen for a Paris-set TV movie calledThe Maid (1991); withElliott Gould in the Dutch miniseriesHoffman's honger (1993); withJean-Hugues Anglade in the French language filmLes marmottes (1993); and with one of Japan's top stars,Masaya Kato in the Australian TV filmCrimebroker (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."[21] Bisset returned to North American screens with the TV filmLeave of Absence (1994), oppositeBrian Dennehy.
In 2005, Bisset was seen in theDomino Harvey biographical filmDomino withKeira Knightley, directed byTony Scott, playing a fictionalised version ofPaulene Stone (renamed "Sophie Wynn"), whom she actually knew from their time as models in London. She filmed a cameo appearance forMr. & Mrs. Smith, but her performance was cut from the movie.[26] In 2006, Bisset had a recurring role on theFX seriesNip/Tuck as the ruthless extortionistJames LeBeau. Her next role was inSave the Last Dance 2 (2006) as the protagonist's ballet instructor. OnLifetime she appeared in an adaption of theNora Roberts novelCarolina Moon (2007).
In 2009, Bisset reunited with Linda Yellen forThe Last Film Festival, which wasDennis Hopper's final screen appearance. Hopper's untimely death in spring 2010 occurred before Yellen could begin postproduction, and she eventually launched a crowd-funding campaign to complete the film. It finally premiered in 2016.[28]
Bisset has enjoyed considerable media visibility in her long career, gracing more than 300 magazine covers. To coincide with the release ofThe Deep,Newsweek voted her "the most beautiful film actress of all time".[35] In 1989, the year she headlinedPaul Bartel's risqué comedyScenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, theNew York Daily News published an article about her titled "Bad Girl Bisset".[36] In 2010, Bisset began appearing in broadcast and print advertisements forAvon's Anew Platinum line of skin care.[37]
Forbes pointed out that, despite her status as a heterosexualsex symbol, Bisset incidentally has acquired a loyal gay fanbase, which the actress herself was unaware of for many years.[39] Its origin goes back to as early as 1968, when she played the widow of a bisexual suicide inThe Detective. Several of her subsequent films have featured LGBT characters, fromThe Grasshopper throughLoren & Rose, with Bisset even playing one herself onNip/Tuck.
In February 2025, Bisset toldPage Six, "[I'm] very unsympathetic to these stories, these#MeToo things," referring to women who came forward during the movement to report sexual abuse and sexual harassment in the workplace, particularly in Hollywood.[40]
In interviews, Bisset is often asked about being unmarried and without children. When she was 32, she told the press: "I couldn't in all conscience do what I do and have children. Could you imagine beingthe daughter ofRaquel Welch? I've heard such horror stories, about the children in Hollywood."[46] Bisset has been ade facto stepmother in two of her past relationships, as Sarrazin and Boztepe already had children before they met her.[47]
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