TIFF 2011 will pay homage to Jacqueline Bisset, one of the best-known icons of international cinema, who will receive the Special Award for Contribution to World Cinema during the Closing Ceremony of the festival’s tenth edition.
Born on September 13, 1944, in Weybridge, Great Britain, Jacqueline Bisset has had an impressive career, which includes over 80 parts in cinema and TV productions. Star of the silver screen starting the 60s, Jacqueline Bisset has quickly risen to fame, managing to gain both the critics’ and the audience’s appraisal, owing to her roles full of character and charm.
She started in Cul-de-sac, by Roman Polanski, with Donald Pleasence playing the main part. She was then distributed in Two for the Road (1967), alongside Audrey Hepburn, and her first important role was in The Cape Town Affair, in 1967, alongside James Brolin.
The part that made her famous is that of Steve McQueen’s lover in the action movie Bullitt, in 1968. The next year brought her the first Golden Globes nomination, in the Most Promising Newcomer – Female category, for her performance in The Sweet Ride. Jacqueline Bisset was one of the big names in the comedy Airport (d. George Seaton), nominated for 9 categories at the Academy Awards in 1971, among which the one for Best Film. She became known on the European scene in 1973, when François Truffaut’s Day for Night came out, the film that brought her a well-deserved place among the most important actors of the time.
She established her fame in the US with The Deep (1977), with Robert Shaw and Nick Nolte, film which made Newsweek declare her „the most beautiful actress of all time”. She was again nominated at the Golden Globes for the comedy Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, in 1978, and soon after that she played in Rich and Famous, alongside Candace Bergen. In 1984, the part in Under the Volcano brought her a new nomination at the Golden Globes.
She played alongside some of the most important actors of the last decades. Her name toped the bill for films such as The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and When Time Ran Out, with Paul Newman. Albert Finney, Mickey Rourke, Anthony Perkins and Michael York starred in films together with her. She worked with directors such as François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, John Huston, Stanley Donen, Sidney Lumet or George Cukor.
In 2000, Jacqueline Bisset was again nominated for the Golden globes, for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the TV mini-series Joan of Arc. For the same role, she received a nomination at the prestigious Emmy Awards (1999). Her most recent films also include The Last Film Festival (d. Linda Yellen), the last film in Dennis Hopper’s career.
In 1996, Jacqueline Bisset was nominated for the César Awards, the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category, for the part in Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie, which will be screened during the anniversary edition of TIFF, on June 11, at Cinema Florin Piersic, during a special screening dedicated to the actress.
