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Few people have as starry and storied a career asJacqueline Bisset.
56 years working in Hollywood (and counting), the English actress is perhaps most well-known for starring alongside screen legends likeFrank SinatrainThe Detective, Steve McQueen inBullitt, and in 1974’sMurder on the Orient Expresswith Lauren Bacall, Albert Finney, and Ingrid Bergman.
Now costarring inBirds of Paradise(now streaming on Prime Video), Bisset walked PEOPLE through a few key career moments in this week’s issue, including: her early modeling days, a memorable night out with Sinatra, being embarrassed about her Bond movie spoof character’s name, and an Oscar winner with whom she’d still like to work.
“I certainly got lucky a lot,” Bisset, 77, says of her nearly six decade-long acting career. “I read a lot of fairytales and I was a bit of a dreamer as a child, but I wasn’t really attracted to the fluff of the business. I was attracted to the depth of what a female might be, which I knew nothing about.”
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“I didn’t know anybody. I had no connections whatsoever to anything,” she says.
Although her first paying gigs were waitressing at restaurants, it was her brief period of modeling that eventually helped get her into film work.
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Bisset attributes her first few film roles to the fact that productions were looking for unknown actresses, like in Roman Polanski’sCul-de-sacandTwo For the RoadwithAudrey Hepburnand Albert Finney.
“My role was small, so I really enjoyed it,” she says ofRoad. “And I was fascinated watching Audrey Hepburn. And I got quite a lot of attention from it, from people who wanted to sign me up [for their projects].”
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For much more on Jacqueline Bisset, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday
Another one of Bisset’s early career highlights was working with Frank Sinatra onThe Detective, in which she was cast to replaceMia Farrowwhen the former couple was going through their divorce.
“I got cast to replace her,” says Bisset. “We first met [on location] on the beach and he handed me a cup of tea or coffee and said, ‘I’m Frank Sinatra.’ And I thought, ‘Oh yeah, you need an introduction?’ I thought it was so sweet that he would introduce himself. And we started working. And that was pretty amazing. He was very nice to me. Very protective, and called me ‘the kid,’ but he was feeling unhappy with what was going on in his life.”
Bisset says he later surprised her with a last-minute plan to take her with him to the New York premiere ofThe Detective.
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“He took me to the premiere in New York. There are pictures of me in a long white dress and him in his tux,” she recalls. “I was staying at the Plaza Hotel which is very grand. He called my room and I didn’t know who he was. He said, ‘This is Francis Albert.’ I said, “I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong number, I don’t think I know you. I’m sorry.' He said, ‘Oh for God’s sake, this is Frank!’ He says, ‘I’ll be there in 20 minutes, order me a vodka.’ I could hardly speak. [Around 20 minutes later] he arrived, drank his vodka, and we went down through the hotel. I couldn’t believe I was going to walk through the hotel with him.”
“I think I was quite soft. And I think people were nicer then, generally, and I was very polite,” she recalls. “People said ‘You were like a little butterfly. You were so fragile.’ I really did not have trouble with all the stories that people talked a lot about [with the MeToo movement]. I was also very determined not to have anything happen. I’ve worked with people who have got the reputation of being monsters, but they weren’t.”
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One of her favorite female costars is Lauren Bacall, with whom she appeared in the 1974 ensembleMurder on the Orient Express.
“Oh, I love Lauren Bacall. She was so sassy. Sassy,” says Bisset of the Golden Age, Oscar-nominated star. “She was tough with me and very warm at the same time. We got on well.”
Her latest film,Birds of Paradise, combines three interests in one: an early love of ballet, her fluency in French, and acting. She hopes to stay busy with her career and has plenty left on her acting to-do list.
“I do love working, when it’s interesting. I get a real buzz from it, and I enjoy being around people I wouldn’t meet otherwise,” Bisset says. “I’d like to work with lots of people. I likeRobert De Nirovery much. I don’t know what show I would be put in with him. I’d probably be put in as his mother.”
Birds of Paradiseis now streaming on Prime Video.
source: people.com