Brigitte Bardot, sultry 1960s sex symbol turned militant animal rights activist, dies at 91

PARIS — Brigitte Bardot, the French sex symbol of the 1960s who became one of the biggest screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist and far-right supporter, has died. She was 91.

Bardot died on Sunday at her home in southern France, according to Bruno Jacquelin of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Protection of Animals. Speaking to The Associated Press, he did not provide a cause of death and said no arrangements had been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.

Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teenage bride in the 1956 film “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it caused a scandal with scenes of the leggy beauty dancing naked on tables.

At the height of a film career that included some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot became the symbol of a nation bursting from bourgeois respectability. Her tousled blonde hair, voluptuous figure and pouting irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.

Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her facial features were chosen as the model for ‘Marianne’, the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, stamps and even coins.

“We mourn a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X on Sunday.

Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to publicize the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she was against Islamic slaughter rituals.

“Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers because it has no power, no words to defend itself.”

Her activism earned the respect of her compatriots and in 1985 she received the Legion of Honor, the country’s highest recognition.

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A bend to the far right

However, she later fell from public favor when her tirades about animal protection took on a decidedly extremist tone. She regularly denounced the influx of immigrants to France, especially Muslims.

She was convicted and fined five times by French courts for incitement to racial hatred, in incidents inspired by her opposition to the Islamic practice of sheep slaughter during annual religious holidays.

Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a former adviser to National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described Le Pen, an outspoken nationalist with several racist beliefs of his own, as a “nice, intelligent man.”

In 2012, she wrote a letter in support of the presidential bid of Marine Le Pen, who now leads her father’s renamed National Rally party. Le Pen paid tribute on Sunday to an “exceptional woman” who was “incredibly French”.

In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many were “playing the banter” with producers to land parts.

She said she had never been the victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to hear that I was beautiful or that I had a nice ass.”

A privileged, but ‘difficult’ upbringing

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on September 28, 1934, the son of a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who placed her on the cover of Elle magazine at the age of 14.

Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian who sometimes punished her with a horse whip.

But it was French film producer 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 sexuality.

The film, which portrays Bardot as a bored newlywed who sleeps with her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and epitomized the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.

The film was a box office success and made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and generous bust were often more appreciated than her talent.

“It’s a shame to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone who was less than nothing.”

Bardot’s unashamed off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It blurred the boundaries between her public and private life and made her a popular prey for paparazzi.

Bardot has never adapted to the spotlight. She blamed constant press attention for the suicide attempt that came ten months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Two weeks before she gave birth, photographers broke into her home to take a picture of her pregnant wife.

Nicolas’s father was Jacques Charrier, a French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave her son up to his father, later saying that she had been chronically depressed and was not ready for the duties of motherhood.

“I was looking for roots at the time,” she said in an interview. “I had nothing to offer.”

In her 1996 autobiography ‘Initiales BB’, she compared her pregnancy to ‘a tumor growing inside me’ and described Charrier as ‘temperamental and insulting’.

Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce again three years later.

Her films included “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred with screen legend Jean Gabin in 1958; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Delightful Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rumboulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).

With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles for displaying Bardot in scanty dresses or frolicking naked in the sun.

“It was never a big passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can sometimes be fatal. Marilyn (Monroe) died because of it.”

Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez in 1973 at the age of 39 after “The Woman Grabber”.

Reinventing yourself in middle age

Ten years later, she emerged with a new persona: an animal rights lobbyist, her face wrinkled and her voice deep after years of heavy smoking. She left her jet-set life and sold movie memorabilia and jewelry to start a foundation focused solely on preventing animal cruelty.

Her activism knew no bounds. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to US President Bill Clinton asking why the US Navy had recaptured two dolphins they had released into the wild.

She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions, including the Palio, a horse race open to all, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.

“It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things are progressing … my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP when asked about her beliefs on racial hatred and her opposition to ritual Muslim slaughter.

In 1997, several cities removed Bardot-inspired images of Marianne after the actress expressed anti-immigrant sentiments. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.

Bardot once said she identified with the animals she tried to save.

“I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhumane. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.”

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Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.