NAME THE ‘BULLITT’ AND ‘THE DEEP’ STAR PICTURED HERE IN 1968!
The answer is Jacqueline Bisset, the elegant British actress whose extraordinary screen presence helped make her one of the most recognizable stars of the late 1960s and 1970s.
In 1968, Bisset was still a relatively new face in Hollywood, but the year proved to be a turning point. She appeared in several important films, including The Detective, The Sweet Ride, and, most famously, Bullitt, the Steve McQueen crime thriller that became one of the defining movies of its era. Bisset played Cathy, the girlfriend of McQueen’s San Francisco police detective Frank Bullitt. (AFI Catalog)
Her beauty immediately attracted attention, but Bisset’s career would ultimately prove to be about much more than glamour. Over the next decade, she established herself as a versatile performer who could move between Hollywood blockbusters, sophisticated dramas, European cinema and star-studded literary adaptations.
The woman behind the photograph
Jacqueline Bisset was born on September 13, 1944, in Weybridge, Surrey, England. Before becoming an actress, she worked as a model and used her earnings to help pay for acting lessons. Her early experiences gave her a determination that would become important as she attempted to establish herself in the competitive British film industry. (IMDb)
Her film career began with small appearances before she started attracting more substantial opportunities. One of her early notable roles came in Roman Polanski’s Cul-de-sac in 1966. The following year, she appeared in Two for the Road alongside Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney and also made an impression in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale. (IMDb)
Those appearances demonstrated that Bisset had something special. She possessed the classic beauty associated with movie stars of the period, yet there was also a quiet intelligence in her performances that made her more interesting than a conventional glamour figure.
Then came 1968.
A breakthrough year
Bisset’s career accelerated dramatically during that year. She took over a role in The Detective, starring Frank Sinatra, after Mia Farrow left the production. She also appeared in The Sweet Ride, opposite Michael Sarrazin, and received a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance. (IMDb)
But the film that would become particularly important to her legacy was Bullitt.
Directed by Peter Yates, Bullitt starred Steve McQueen as San Francisco police lieutenant Frank Bullitt. The film was released in October 1968 and became famous for its tough, stripped-down style, location shooting and legendary automobile chase through the streets of San Francisco. (Wikipedia)
Bisset played Cathy, Bullitt’s girlfriend. While McQueen dominated the film with his famously restrained performance, Bisset provided an important emotional counterpoint. Cathy’s relationship with Bullitt reveals the personal cost of his dangerous profession and his increasingly violent world. The official AFI catalog lists Bisset as Cathy alongside McQueen’s Frank Bullitt, confirming her central place in the film’s principal cast. (AFI Catalog)
The film’s success gave the young actress a tremendous boost.
Bisset later recalled her experiences working with McQueen, describing him as highly involved and attentive to details on the production. In a later interview, she remembered being 23 and breaking into Hollywood while working alongside one of the biggest stars in the world. (CBS News)
From Bullitt to Airport
The success of Bullitt opened the door to bigger opportunities.
By 1970, Bisset was part of the enormous ensemble cast of Airport, one of the films that helped establish the disaster-movie cycle of the 1970s. The movie featured an impressive collection of stars and became another major commercial success. Bisset played Gwen Meighen, a stewardess involved in one of the film’s central storylines. (IMDb)
The role reinforced something that was becoming increasingly obvious: Bisset could hold her own in productions filled with established Hollywood stars.
Yet she wasn’t content simply to remain a glamorous leading lady.
A new direction with François Truffaut
One of the most important chapters in Bisset’s career came in 1973 when she worked with legendary French filmmaker François Truffaut in Day for Night.
The film was a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a movie, blending comedy, drama and reflections on filmmaking. Bisset played Julie Baker, an actress whose personal life becomes entangled with the complicated production around her.
The role gave Bisset an opportunity to demonstrate a greater dramatic range and helped strengthen her reputation beyond Hollywood glamour. Her career increasingly moved between American commercial films and European productions. (IMDb)
This was a significant development because Bisset was beginning to be appreciated not merely for her appearance but for the subtlety she could bring to complicated characters.
Murder on the Orient Express
In 1974, Bisset joined another extraordinary ensemble in Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express.
Based on Agatha Christie’s celebrated mystery, the film brought together an astonishing cast that included Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave and Michael York.
Bisset played Countess Elena Andrenyi. Her presence in such an ensemble demonstrated the level she had reached by the middle of the decade. (IMDb)
The film became one of the most famous adaptations of Christie’s work and remains a beloved example of the all-star mystery movie.
For Bisset, it was another major milestone in a decade filled with them.
The Deep and worldwide fame
Then came the movie that would become inseparable from Bisset’s image: The Deep.
Released in 1977 and directed by Peter Yates, the same filmmaker who had directed Bullitt, the adventure film reunited Bisset with the director who had helped introduce her to a worldwide audience nearly a decade earlier.
Bisset starred opposite Nick Nolte, with Robert Shaw and Louis Gossett Jr. also among the principal cast. The story combined underwater adventure, treasure hunting and danger in the Caribbean.
The film became a major popular success, and Bisset’s role transformed her into an even bigger international celebrity. Her underwater scenes received enormous publicity, sometimes overshadowing discussion of the film itself. (IMDb)
Interestingly, The Deep created a fascinating bookend to her career breakthrough. In 1968, Peter Yates had helped introduce Bisset to audiences through Bullitt. Nine years later, he directed her in another movie that became one of her most recognizable films.
More than a screen icon
It would be easy to remember Jacqueline Bisset simply as one of the great beauties of 1970s cinema. Her photographs from the period certainly helped create that image. But such a description overlooks the breadth of her career.
She continued working extensively in both American and European productions. Her credits included films such as The Sunday Woman, St. Ives, The Greek Tycoon, Rich and Famous and Under the Volcano. (L.A. Theatre Works)
She also continued working in television, later appearing in projects including Ally McBeal, Nip/Tuck, Joan of Arc and Rizzoli & Isles. (L.A. Theatre Works)
Her career therefore developed in several different directions rather than following the conventional path of a Hollywood leading lady.
Why the 1968 photograph matters
That’s what makes the photograph in the question particularly fascinating.
The woman pictured represents Bisset at a moment when her Hollywood career was just beginning to explode. She had already worked with respected filmmakers and established stars, but she had not yet accumulated the extraordinary list of credits that would later define her career.
Within a few years, she would be appearing in major productions alongside some of the biggest names in international cinema.
And Bullitt remains the crucial connection.
The film is remembered primarily for McQueen, the San Francisco locations and its spectacular car chase, but Bisset’s Cathy remains an important part of the movie’s human dimension. The film’s cast records confirm her role alongside McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon and Robert Duvall. (AFI Catalog)
From there came Airport, Day for Night, Murder on the Orient Express and ultimately The Deep.
Each film added another layer to her reputation.
The answer: Jacqueline Bisset
So, if you recognized the clues — the British actress, the 1968 appearance opposite Steve McQueen, the later roles in Airport, Murder on the Orient Express and The Deep — there is little doubt about the answer.
It is Jacqueline Bisset.
Her career is a remarkable example of how a performer can enter Hollywood through the door of glamour and then build something much more substantial. Bullitt introduced her to a huge international audience, while films such as Day for Night demonstrated her dramatic abilities. Murder on the Orient Express placed her among an extraordinary ensemble of stars, and The Deep cemented her status as one of the defining screen personalities of the 1970s. (IMDb)
More than half a century later, Bisset’s image from the late 1960s still captures a fascinating moment in movie history: the instant when a talented young British actress was crossing the Atlantic and beginning to become a genuine international star.
And in 1968, the film that helped make that transformation possible was Bullitt.
