The Only Major Actors Still Alive From 1968's Bullitt

Peter Yates' "Bullitt" is one of the most stylish cop flicks ever made. Those multi-screen opening credits designed by the great Pablo Ferro, that jazzily urbane Lalo Schifren score, those wildly cool outfits donned by Steve McQueen at the height of his laconic sexiness (some inspired by the suits sported by real life detective Dave Toschi) –- it's a stone groove punctuated by spasms of violence and, of course, a raucous car chase through the hilly streets of San Francisco. It's so ineffably pleasurable, you don't mind that the narrative is a sketchily plotted afterthought. Who needs an intricately structured story when you're watching, as Quentin Tarantino wrote in his book "Cinema Speculation," "one of the best directed movies ever made?"

You throw on "Bullitt" for the 1968-ness of it all (it's the apolitical flip-side of the coin to Haskell Wexler's roiling docudrama "Medium Cool"), as well as the opportunity to hang out with a stacked cast of New Hollywood stars and soon-to-be-television-titans like Norman Fell (landlord Mr. Roper on "Three's Company") and Vic Tayback (diner operator Mel Sharples on "Alice"). When you see those actors' names scroll up, down, and sideways in the frame over that intro, you can only smile, lean back, pour yourself two fingers of bourbon, and dig what Yates and McQueen are laying down.

"Bullitt" turned 56 this year, which means we've sadly lost most of the film's phenomenal main cast. Fell and Tayback are gone, as are Robert Vaughn (who played the combative Chalmers), Simon Oakland (as Captain Bennett) and McQueen's real-life buddy Don Gordon (as Frank Bullitt's partner Delgetti). We also lost McQueen way too soon to cancer at the age of 50 in 1980.

But there are three significant members of the cast still with us, so let's celebrate their splendid work in "Bullitt" and elsewhere throughout their impressive careers.

The Havana, Cuba-born Brown was in his mid-20s when he broke into the film business via a small role in 1967's critically panned Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton drama "The Comedians." He was much better served by Yates' "Bullitt" as Dr. Willard, a surgeon who must contend with Chalmer's racist contention that he is too "inexperienced" to tend to the precarious health of the shot-up gangster Johnny Ross (Pat Renella). Willard gets vocal support from a resident nurse and a "sorry about my a**hole boss" glance from Bullitt as Brown beautifully underplays his character's disbelief.

Brown went on to appear in notable films like "Colossus: The Forbin Project," "Stir Crazy," and "House Party 2," and found television stardom on the police procedural "The Rookies," which ran for four seasons on ABC. He also played Tom Harvey on "Roots" and "Roots: The Next Generation," and worked steadily throughout the '80s on shows and miniseries like "Cagney & Lacey" (for which he won a Primetime Emmy for Best Director), "Matlock," and "North and South, Book 1." His last on-camera appearances were in 2005, when he appeared in the direct-to-video film "Shackles" and the TV movie "The Reading Room" opposite James Earl Jones and Joanna Cassidy. Aside from a voice performance in 2012 for the Tom Hanks produced animated series "Electric City," Brown has seemingly been retired from the film and television business.

Duvall was on the cusp of stardom when he landed the role of the cabbie Weissberg in "Bullitt," which, along with his performances in the same year's "Countdown" (with James Caan) and "The Detective" (in support of Frank Sinatra), seemed to be positioning him as a character actor. Duvall would soon prove –- through supporting roles in "M*A*S*H" and the "Godfather" movies, and lead parts in "The Outfit" and "Badge 373" –- that he was a man of many modes.

To call Duvall's acting and directing career "distinguished" is like saying Prince had a great voice. He's been nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning Best Actor for arguably his finest performance (as alcoholic country singer Mac Sledge in "Tender Mercies"), and made a stirring debut as a director with the masterful "The Apostle" (arguably his second finest performance). He was a terrific jerk in "Network," loved the smell of napalm in the morning in "Apocalypse Now," and set the gold standard for horrifically abusive fathers in "The Great Santini." Duvall most recently appeared in "Hustle" and "The Pale Blue Eye" in 2022, and seems nowhere close to retirement at the age of 93. May he live 1,000 years!

There was no doubt that the camera loved Jacqueline Bisset when she began to pursue her acting career in her early 20s. Roman Polanski cast her in a small role in his sophomore feature "Cul de Sac," which led to a couple of head-turning performances in the spy spoof version of "Casino Royale" (as Giovanna Goodthighs) and an object of desire for Albert Finney in "Two for the Road." Her big break was supposed to come as the wife of a suicide victim in the Frank Sinatra vehicle "The Detective" (where the Chairman essentially played an early version of Bruce Willis' John McClane), but "Bullitt" was by far the bigger hit, giving her wide exposure as McQueen's love interest.

Bisset went on to snag a more substantial role in 1970 in the disaster blockbuster "Airport!," where the 26-year-old played the chief flight attendant struggling to allay passengers' fears aboard a crippled airplane (while flirting with the frisky captain portrayed by a 53-year-old Dean Martin). Bisset basically played herself, brilliantly, in François Truffaut's 1973 masterpiece "Day for Night," set the screen ablaze opposite Nick Nolte in "The Deep," and got good and catty with Candice Bergen in George Cukor's final film, "Rich and Famous." French filmmakers seemed to get her better than American directors; her best performance outside of "Day for Night" was in Claude Chabrol's thriller "La Cérémonie." Bisset is still quite active at the age of 80, so now would be an opportune time for someone to get her the Oscar nomination that's been frustratingly out of grasp throughout her 60-year career.