Brigitte Bardot, the iconic French actress who sensationalized cinema on both sides of the Atlantic with her pioneering brand of autonomous sexuality, fierce attitude and open indifference to the social approval of modern celebrity, has died. She was 91.
Bardot’s foundation confirmed the news Sunday.
After spending the first half of her life starring in films such as Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt,” Bardot dedicated her long second act advocating for and protecting animals.
“The Brigitte Bardot Foundation pays tribute to the memory of an exceptional woman who gave everything and gave up everything for a world more respectful of animals,” the foundation said in a statement. “Her legacy lives on through the actions and struggles the Foundation continues with the same passion and the same fidelity to her ideals.”
Bardot was also remembered by French President Emmanuel Macron, who wrote on X, “Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom. French existence, universal brilliance. She touched us. We mourn a legend of the century.”
Despite being admittedly critical of her own acting abilities, Bardot’s impact on France cannot be overstated. In addition to “Contempt,” she was also known for her roles in “…And God Created Woman” (1956) and “Viva Maria!” (1965), as well as for her singing career.
Bardot was also largely considered one of the first true celebrities, and embodied the perfections and imperfections that came with such a crown. Her personal life was fodder for gossips.
“In the game of love, she is as much a hunter as she is a prey,” wrote Simone de Beauvoir in 1959. “The male is an object to her, just as she is to him. And that is precisely what wounds masculine pride.”
Bardot quit acting in 1973 before she turned 40 and shifted her focus to animal rights and activism. As she told The Guardian in 2019, “I know what it feels like to be hunted.”
“The majority of great actresses met tragic ends. When I said goodbye to this job, to this life of opulence and glitter, images and adoration, the quest to be desired, I was saving my life,” she also said. “This worship of celebrity … suffocated me.”
In 1994, Bardot told The New York Times that stepping away from acting opened her up to activism in more ways than one. “But when I was making films, I discovered there was a difference between loving animals and fighting for them — and I didn’t have time to fight for them,” she said. “So that’s why I gave up cinema. I stopped making films to look after animals.”
“I only live in the world of animal protection,” she also said in the 1994 interview. “I speak only of that. I think only of that. I am obsessed.” She helped bring her foundation to life in 1986.
Bardot was also an open supporter of politically rightward politicians and parties in France, including the National Front and the National Rally.
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born September 18, 1934, in Paris, France. She hoped to become a ballerina as a child, and began acting in 1952. She is survived by her son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, but she did not believe she was meant to be a mother and the pair did not build a relationship until they were both adults. She is also survived by her husband Bernard d’Ormale, whom she married in 1992.
