Brigitte Bardot, the 1960s French actor-singer-model who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91 years old.
Bruno Jacqueline of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Protection of Animals told The Associated Press that he died at his home in southern France, and that he would not reveal the cause of death. He said no arrangements have been made yet for funeral or memorial services. He was admitted to the hospital last month.
Brigitte became an international celebrity as a voluptuous teenage bride in the 1956 film And God Created Woman. Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it sparked a scandal by showing the leggy beauty dancing on a table in the nude.
At the peak of her cinema career, which spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Brigitte became a symbol of a nation growing out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, attractive figure and blossoming irreverence made her one of France’s most famous stars.
Her widespread appeal was such that in 1969 her features were chosen as Marianne, the national symbol of France and the model for the official Gallic seal. Brigitte’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps, and even coins.
Brigitte’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. He traveled to the Arctic to report on the slaughter of baby seals; He condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; And he opposed sending monkeys into space.
“Man is an insatiable hunter,” Brigitte told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday in 2007.
His activism earned the respect of his compatriots and in 1985, he was awarded the Legion of Honor, the country’s highest honor.
a turn to the right
However, later, she fell from public grace as her animal protection statements took a decidedly extremist tone and her far-right political views began to seem racist as she frequently condemned the influx of immigrants into France.
He was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. In particular, he criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays such as Eid al-Adha.
Brigitte’s 1992 marriage to her fourth husband Bernard d’Ormel, a one-time adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political transformation. He described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent guy”.
In 2012, he again caused controversy when he wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party – now named National Rally – in her unsuccessful bid for the French presidency.
In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Brigitte said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many “flirted” with producers to get roles.
She said that she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and that she “found it tempting to be told that I was pretty or that I had a nice little ass.”
A privileged, but ‘tough’ upbringing
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on September 28, 1934 to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend, who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at the age of 14.
Brigitte once described her childhood as “difficult” and said that her father was a strict disciplinarian who sometimes punished her with a horse whip.
But it was French filmmaker Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote And God Created Woman to showcase her provocative sensuality, an explosive cocktail of childlike innocence and raw sensuality.
The film, which portrayed Brigitte as a bored newlywed who sleeps with her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut and became a symbol of 1960s hedonism and sexual freedom.
The film was a box-office hit and made Brigitte a superstar. Her girlish posture, small waist and generous bust were often appreciated more than her talent.
Brigitte said of her early films, “It’s an embarrassment to act so badly.” “I suffered a lot in the beginning. In fact, I was treated as if I was less than anyone.”
Brigitte’s brazen, off-screen affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. This blurred the boundaries between her public and private lives and turned her into an attractive prize for the paparazzi.
Brigitte has never been in the limelight. He blamed the constant press attention for his suicide attempt 10 months after the birth of his only child, Nicholas. Photographers had entered her house two weeks before her birth to capture her pregnancy.
Nicolas’s father was Jacques Carrier, a handsome French actor, whom she married in 1959, but she never felt comfortable in the role of Monsieur Bardot. Brigitte soon surrendered her son to his father, and later said that she had been depressed for a long time and was unprepared for the duties of motherhood.
“Then I was looking for roots,” she said in an interview. “I had nothing to give.”
In her 1996 autobiography “Initials BB”, she compared her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me” and described Charrière as “temperamental and abusive”.
Brigitte married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Günther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship again ended in divorce after three years.
His films include A Parisien (1957); A Case of Bad Luck, in which she starred opposite screen legend Jean Gabin in 1958; Satya (1960); Private Life (1962); A Ravishing Idiot (1964); Shalako (1968); Women (1969); Bears and Dolls (1970); Rum Boulevard (1971); and Don Juan (1973).
With the exception of the critically acclaimed Contempt, directed by Godard in 1963, Brigitte’s films were rarely complex in plot. Often, they were a means of showcasing Brigitte’s curves and legs in skimpy dresses or walking around naked in the sun.
Of filmmaking he said, “It was never my big passion.” “And it can sometimes be fatal. It’s what caused Marilyn (Monroe) to die.”
After The Woman Grabber, Brigitte retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez in 1973 at the age of 39.
Reinventing myself in middle age
A decade later she emerged with a new personality: an animal rights lobbyist, her face wrinkled and her voice deepened by years of heavy smoking. She gave up her jet-set life and sold film memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation dedicated exclusively to the prevention of animal cruelty.
There was no limit to his activism. He urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote a letter to US President Bill Clinton asking why the US Navy recaptured two dolphins released into the wild.
He attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions, including free-for-all horse racing, the Palio, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.
By the late 1990s, Brigitte was making headlines that caused her to lose many fans. He was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by his anger over Muslim animal slaughter rituals.
“It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things are moving… and despite all the promises made to me by all the different governments – my anxiety increases,” Brigitte told the AP.
In 1997, after the actress expressed anti-immigrant sentiment, several towns removed Brigitte-inspired statues of Marianne – a bare-chested statue representing the French Republic. Also that year, he received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.
Brigitte once said that she identified herself with the animals she was trying to save.
“From the way I was treated, I can understand that hunted animals,” said Brigitte. “What happened to me was inhumane. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.”