Saturday, January 31, 2026

A00304 - Brigitte Bardot, French Actress, Singer, Model, and Animal Rights Activist

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Brigitte Bardot
Black-and-white head shot of Bardot smiling
Bardot in 1962
Born
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot

28 September 1934
Paris, France
Died28 December 2025 (aged 91)
Saint-Tropez, France
Occupations
  • Actress
  • singer
  • model
  • animal rights activist
Years active
  • 1952–1973 (entertainer)
  • 1973–2025 (activist)
WorksFilmography
Spouses
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(m. 1952; div. 1957)​
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(m. 1959; div. 1962)​
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(m. 1966; div. 1969)​
Bernard d'Ormale
 
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(m. 1992)​
Children1
RelativesMijanou Bardot (sister)
Signature
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Brigitte Bardot (born September 28, 1934, Paris, France—died December 28, 2025, Saint-Tropez, France) was a French film actress and singer who became an international sex symbol in the 1950s and ’60s. She later stepped away from stardom and gained recognition as a champion of animal rights.

Film career

Bardot was born to wealthy bourgeois parents, and at the age of 15 she posed for the cover of Elle (May 8, 1950), France’s leading women’s magazine. Roger Vadim, an aspiring director, was impressed and shrewdly fashioned her public and screen image as an erotic child of nature—blond, sensuous, and amoral. In two motion pictures directed by Vadim—Et Dieu créa la femme (1956; And God Created Woman) and Les Bijoutiers du claire de lune (1958; “The Jewelers of Moonlight”; Eng. title The Night Heaven Fell)—Bardot broke contemporary film taboos against nudity and set box-office records in Europe and the United States. (Bardot was married to Vadim from 1952 to 1957.)

B.B.
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B.B.Brigitte Bardot in an undated photograph.
Viva Maria!
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Viva Maria!Jeanne Moreau (right) with Brigitte Bardot in Viva Maria! (1965), directed by Louis Malle.

Bardot was the darling of disaffected French leftists, to whom she symbolized an artless disregard for conventional morality. Of her many films the most notable are Vie privée (1962; “The Private Life,” A Very Private Affair), Le Mépris (1963; Contempt), Viva Maria! (1965), Dear Brigitte (1965), and Masculin-Féminin (1966; Masculine Feminine). Bardot appeared in her final films in 1973 and subsequently retired.


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Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (French: [bʁiʒit anmaʁi baʁdo]; 28 September 1934 – 28 December 2025), often referred to by her initials B.B.,[1][2] was a French actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist. She became one of the best-known symbols of the sexual revolution and gained international fame for portraying characters associated with hedonistic lifestyles. Although she withdrew from the entertainment industry in 1973, she remained a major pop culture icon.[3][4] She appeared in 47 films, performed in several musicals, and recorded more than 60 songs. She was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1985.

Born and raised in Paris, Bardot was an aspiring ballerina during her childhood. She began her acting career in 1952 and achieved international recognition in 1957 for her role in And God Created Woman (1956), catching the attention of many French intellectuals and earning her the nickname "sex kitten".[5] She was the subject of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay The Lolita Syndrome, which described her as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the most liberated woman of France. She won a 1961 David di Donatello Best Foreign Actress Award for her work in The Truth (1960). Bardot later starred in Jean-Luc Godard's film Le Mépris (1963). For her role in Louis Malle's film Viva Maria! (1965), she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress. French president Charles de Gaulle called Bardot "the French export as important as Renault cars".[6]

After retiring from acting in 1973, Bardot became an animal rights activist and created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. She was known for her strong personality, outspokenness, speeches on animal welfare, and for her long-term support of far-right views. She was fined twice for public insults, and five times for inciting racial hatred[7][8] for her criticism of Muslims in France and calling residents of Réunion "savages". She responded: "I never knowingly wanted to hurt anybody. It is not in my character [...] Among Muslims, I think there are some who are very good and some hoodlums, like everywhere."[9][10] Bardot was a member of the Global 500 Roll of Honour of the United Nations Environment Programme and received several awards and accolades from UNESCO and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Early life

Bardot at 19 in 1954 by Studio Harcourt

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on September 28, 1934 in the 15th arrondissement of Paris to Louis Bardot (1896–1975) and Anne-Marie Mucel (1912–1978).[11] Bardot's father, who originated from Ligny-en-Barrois, was an engineer and the proprietor of several industrial factories in Paris.[12][13] Her mother was the daughter of an insurance company director.[14] She grew up in a conservative Catholic family, as had her father.[15][10] She suffered from amblyopia as a child, which resulted in decreased vision of her left eye.[16] She had one younger sister, Mijanou Bardot.[17]

Bardot's childhood was prosperous; she lived in her family's nine-bedroom apartment at 1 Rue de la Pompe,[18] in the luxurious 16th arrondissement;[19][20] however, she recalled feeling resentful in her early years.[21] Her father demanded that she follow strict behavioral standards, including good table manners, and wear appropriate clothes.[22] Her mother was highly selective in choosing companions for her, so Bardot had very few childhood friends.[23]

During her childhood, she, her sister, and their parents spent weekends on her paternal grandparents' property, at 17 rue du Général Leclerc in Louveciennes, with a chalet imported from Norway for Exposition Universelle (1889) and large gardens,[18][24] where she later celebrated her marriage to Jacques Charrier.[25]

Bardot recalled a personal traumatic incident when she and her sister broke their parents' favourite vase while they were playing in the house. The sisters' father whipped both of them 20 times and subsequently treated the two like "strangers", demanding that they address their parents by the formal second-person pronoun vous, used in French when speaking to unfamiliar or higher-status persons outside the immediate family.[26] The incident led to Bardot decisively resenting her parents and to her future rebellious lifestyle.[27]

During World War II, when Paris was occupied by Nazi Germany, Bardot spent more time at home due to increasingly strict civilian surveillance.[20] She became engrossed in dancing to records, which her mother saw as a potential for a ballet career.[20] Bardot was admitted at the age of seven to the private school Cours Hattemer.[28] She went to school three days a week, which gave her ample time to take dance lessons at a local studio under her mother's arrangements.[23] In 1949, Bardot was accepted at the Conservatoire de Paris. She attended ballet classes held by Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev for three years.[29] She also studied at the Institut de la Tour, a private Catholic high school near her home.[30]

Career

See also: Brigitte Bardot filmography

Beginnings: 1949–1955

Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, the director of the magazines Elle and Le Jardin des Modes, hired Bardot in 1949 as a "junior" fashion model.[31] On 8 March 1950, 15-year-old Bardot appeared on the cover of Elle, which brought her an acting offer for the film Les Lauriers sont coupés from director Marc Allégret.[32][33] Her parents opposed her becoming an actress, but her grandfather was supportive, saying that "If this little girl is to become a whore, cinema will not be the cause."[A]

At the audition, Bardot met Roger Vadim, who later notified her that she did not get the role.[35] They subsequently fell in love.[36] Her parents fiercely opposed their relationship; her father announced to her one evening that she would continue her education in England and that he had bought her a train ticket for the following day.[37] Bardot reacted by putting her head into an oven with open fire; her parents stopped her and ultimately accepted the relationship, on condition that she marry Vadim at the age of 18.[38]

Bardot in a scene of Concert of Intrigue in 1954

When Bardot was 15 years old,[39] she began modeling.[40][41] She appeared on the cover of Elle in 1950 and 1952, which both brought acting roles,[41] the first, released in 1952, a small part in the comedy film Crazy for Love, directed by Jean Boyer and starring Bourvil.[42] She was paid 200,000 francs (about US$575 in 1952[43]) for the small role portraying a cousin of the main character.[42] Bardot had her second film role in Manina, the Girl in the Bikini (1952), directed by Willy Rozier.[44] She also had roles in the 1953 films, The Long Teeth and His Father's Portrait. Bardot had a small role in a Hollywood-financed film being shot in Paris in 1953, Act of Love, starring Kirk Douglas. She received media attention when she attended the Cannes Film Festival in April 1953.[45]

Bardot had a leading role in 1954 in an Italian melodrama, Concert of Intrigue, and in a French adventure film, Caroline and the Rebels. She had a good part as a flirtatious student in 1955's School for Love, opposite Jean Marais, for director Marc Allégret. Bardot played her first sizable English-language role in 1955 in Doctor at Sea as the love interest of Dirk Bogarde. The film was the third most popular movie in Britain that year.[46] Bardot had a small role in The Grand Maneuver (1955) for director René Clair, supporting Gérard Philipe and Michèle Morgan. Her part was bigger in The Light Across the Street (1956) for director Georges Lacombe. She had another in the Hollywood film Helen of Troy, playing Helen's handmaiden. For the Italian movie Nero's Weekend (1956), brunette Bardot was asked by the director to appear as a blonde. She dyed her hair rather than wear a wig; she was so pleased with the results that she decided to retain the color.[47]

Rise to stardom: 1956–1962

A US newspaper clipping, 9 February 1958

Bardot then appeared in four movies that made her a star. First was a musical, Naughty Girl (1956), where Bardot played a troublesome school girl. Directed by Michel Boisrond and co-written by Roger Vadim, it was also the first time Bardot appeared alongside Alain Delon in a sketch film where they shared a segment. The film was a major success and became the 12th most popular film of the year in France.[48][49]

It was followed by a comedy, Plucking the Daisy (1956), also written by Vadim. This was succeeded by The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful (1956) with Louis Jourdan. Finally, there was the melodrama And God Created Woman (1956). The movie marks Vadim's debut as director, with Bardot starring opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant and Curt Jurgens. The film, about an immoral teenager in an otherwise respectable small-town setting, was an even larger success, not just in France but also around the world, listed among the ten most popular films in Great Britain in 1957.[50]

Bardot featured on the cover of Screenland, March 1959

In the United States, the film was the highest-grossing foreign film ever released, by grossing $12 million (earning $4 million), which author Peter Lev describes as "an astonishing amount for a foreign film at that time".[51][52]It turned Bardot into an international star.[45] From at least 1956,[53] she was hailed as the "sex kitten".[54][55][56] The film scandalized the United States and some theater managers were even arrested just for screening it.[6] Paul O'Neil of Life (June 1958) in describing Bardot's international popularity, writes:

In gaining her present eminence, Brigitte Bardot has had certain advantages beyond those she was born with. Like the European sports car, she has arrived on the American scene at a time when the American public is ready, even hungry, for something racier and more realistic than the familiar domestic product.[57]

During her early career, professional photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed to the image of Bardot's sensuality. British photographer Cornel Lucas made images of Bardot in the 1950s and 1960s that have become representative of her public persona. Bardot followed And God Created Woman up with La Parisienne (1957), a comedy co-starring Charles Boyer for director Boisrond. She was reunited with Vadim in another melodrama The Night Heaven Fell (1958), and played a criminal who seduced Jean Gabin in In Case of Adversity (1958). The latter was the 13th most seen movie of the year in France.[58] In 1958, Bardot became the highest-paid actress in the country of France.[59] She was voted among the top ten box office draws in North America based solely on her French films, something that had never happened before.[49] In August 1956 it was announced Preston Sturges would direct her in Long Live the King but the film was never made.[60]

Bardot in 1961

The Female (1959) for director Julien Duvivier was popular, but Babette Goes to War (1959), a comedy set in World War II, was a huge hit, the fourth biggest movie of the year in France.[61] Also widely seen was Come Dance with Me (1959) from Boisrond. Bardot's next film was courtroom drama The Truth (1960), from Henri-Georges Clouzot. It was a highly publicized production, which resulted in Bardot having an affair and attempting suicide. The film was Bardot's biggest commercial success in France, the third biggest hit of the year, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.[62] Bardot was awarded a David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress for her role in the film.[63]

Bardot and Michel Piccoli caught by paparazzi in Italy during the filming of Contempt in 1963

International films and singing career: 1962–1968

Bardot visiting Brazil in 1964

Bardot made a comedy with Vadim, Please, Not Now! (1961), and had a role in the all-star anthology, Famous Love Affairs (1962). Bardot starred alongside Marcello Mastroianni in a film inspired by her life in A Very Private Affair (Vie privée, 1962), directed by Louis Malle. More popular than that was her role in Love on a Pillow (1962). In the mid-1960s, Bardot made films that seemed to be more aimed at the international market. She starred in Jean-Luc Godard's film Le Mépris (1963), produced by Joseph E. Levine and starring Jack Palance.[64]

The following year, she co-starred with Anthony Perkins in the comedy Une ravissante idiote (1964). Dear Brigitte (1965), Bardot's first Hollywood film, was a comedy starring James Stewart as an academic whose son develops a crush on Bardot. Bardot's appearance was relatively brief in the film, and the movie was not a big success. More successful was the Western buddy comedy Viva Maria! (1965) for director Louis Malle, appearing opposite Jeanne Moreau. It was a big hit in France and many other countries but not in the United States as much as had been hoped.[64]

After a cameo appearance in Godard's Masculin Féminin (1966), Bardot starred in her first outright flop in some years, Two Weeks in September (1968), a French–English co-production.[65] She had a small role in the all-star Spirits of the Dead (1968), acting opposite Alain Delon, then tried a Hollywood film again: Shalako (1968), a Western starring Sean Connery, which was another box-office disappointment.[66]

Bardot in 1968

Bardot participated in several musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury, and Sacha Distel, including "Harley Davidson"; "Je me donne à qui me plaît"; "Bubble gum"; "Contact"; "Je reviendrai toujours vers toi"; "L'Appareil à sous"; "La Madrague"; "On déménage"; "Sidonie"; "Tu veux, ou tu veux pas?"; "Le Soleil de ma vie" (a cover of Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"); and "Je t'aime... moi non plus". Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release this duet and he complied with her wish; the following year, he rerecorded a version with British-born model and actress Jane Birkin that became a massive hit all over Europe. The version with Bardot was issued in 1986 and became a download hit in 2006 when Universal Music made its back catalog available to purchase online, with this version of the song ranking as the third most popular download.[67]

Final films: 1969–1973

Bardot in Rome in 1969

From 1969 to 1972, Bardot was the official face of Marianne, who had previously up until then been anonymous, to represent the liberty of France.[68][69]

Bardot's next film Les Femmes (1969) was a flop, although the screwball comedy The Bear and the Doll (1970) performed better. Her last few films were mostly comedies: Les Novices (1970), Boulevard du Rhum (1971) (with Lino Ventura). The Legend of Frenchie King (1971) was popular, helped by Bardot co-starring with Claudia Cardinale. Bardot made one more movie with Vadim, Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973), in which she played the title role. Regarding the film, Vadim said: "Underneath what people call 'the Bardot myth' was something interesting, even though she was never considered the most professional actress in the world. For a few years, since she has been growing older and the Bardot myth has become just a souvenir, I wanted to work with Brigitte. I was curious in her as a woman, and I had to get to the end of something with her, to get out of her and express many things I felt were in her. Brigitte always gave the impression of sexual freedom – she is a completely open and free person, without any aggression. So I gave her the part of a man – that amused me."[70]

During the filming, Bardot said: "If Don Juan is not my last movie it will be my next to last."[71] She kept her word and made only one more film, The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot (1973). In 1973, Bardot announced she was retiring from acting as "a way to get out elegantly".[72] In 1974, Bardot appeared in a nude photo shoot in Playboy magazine, which celebrated her 40th birthday.[73]

Animal rights activism

Bardot met Paul Watson in 1977, the same year he founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, during an operation to condemn the massacre of seal pups and seal hunting on the Canadian ice floe.[74] In support of animal protection, Bardot went to the ice floe after being invited by Watson.[75] Bardot posed lying down next to the seal pups; the photos were seen worldwide. Bardot and Watson remained friends.[76]

After appearing in more than 40 motion pictures and recording several music albums, Bardot used her fame to promote animal rights. In 1986, she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the welfare and protection of animals.[77] She became a vegetarian[78] and raised three million francs (about US$430,000 in 1986[43]) to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and personal belongings.[77]

Bardot was a strong animal rights activist and a major opponent of the consumption of horse meat.[79][80] In 1989, while looking after her neighbor Jean-Pierre Manivet's donkey, it displayed excessive interest in Bardot's older donkey mare, and she subsequently had the neighbor's donkey castrated due to concerns the mating would prove fatal for her mare. The neighbor then sued Bardot, and Bardot later won, with the court ordering Manivet to pay 20,000 francs for creating a "false scandal".[81][82] Bardot urged French television viewers to boycott horse meat and was soon the target of death threats in January 1994. Not backing off from the threats, she sent a letter to the minister of agriculture, Jean Puech, calling on him to ban the sale of horse meat.[83] Bardot wrote a 1999 letter to People's Republic of China President Jiang Zemin, published in French magazine VSD, in which she accused the PRC of "torturing bears and killing the world's last tigers and rhinos to make aphrodisiacs". She donated more than US$140,000 over two years in 2001 for a mass neutering and adoption program for Bucharest's stray dogs, estimated to number 300,000.[84]

In August 2010, Bardot addressed a letter to Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, appealing for the sovereign to halt the killing of dolphins in the Faroe Islands. In the letter, Bardot described the activity as a "macabre spectacle" that "is a shame for Denmark and the Faroe Islands ... This is not a hunt but a mass slaughter ... an outmoded tradition that has no acceptable justification in today's world".[85] On 22 April 2011, French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand officially included bullfighting in the country's cultural heritage. Bardot wrote him a highly critical letter of protest.[86] On 25 May 2011, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society renamed its fast interceptor vessel, MV Gojira, as MV Brigitte Bardot in appreciation of her support.[87]

From 2013, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, in collaboration with Kagyupa International Monlam Trust of India, operated an annual veterinary care camp. Bardot committed to the cause of animal welfare in Bodhgaya over several years.[88] On 23 July 2015, Bardot condemned Australian politician Greg Hunt's plan to eradicate 2 million cats to save endangered species such as the Warru and night parrot.[89] At the age of 90, Bardot appealed to free activist Paul Watson, who had been detained in Greenland since 21 July 2024, when Japan requested his extradition. Through a request expressed in mid-October 2024 by her lawyers and Sea Shepherd France, Bardot asked French President Emmanuel Macron to grant Watson political asylum. Bardot asked Macron to show "a little bit of courage". During that month, she initiated a demonstration in support of Watson in front of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris.[74] Bardot also wrote a letter to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, asking her to "not choose the camp of the oceans' gravediggers".[90]

Personal life

Habits

Bardot had a habit of going barefoot in the streets of Saint-Tropez and Capri,[91] which became a part of her public image, and was incorporated into her character Juliette in And God Created Woman.[92]

Relationships and family

Bardot was married four times with her final marriage lasting longer than the previous three combined. By her own count, she had a total of 17 romantic relationships.[93] She often left one partner for another when, in her words, "the present was getting lukewarm"; she explained, "I have always looked for passion. That's why I was often unfaithful. And when the passion was coming to an end, I was packing my suitcase."[94]

Roger Vadim

Bardot married director Roger Vadim on 20 December 1952, at Notre-Dame-de-Grace de Passy,[95] when she was 18.[96] They separated in 1956 after she became involved with And God Created Woman co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, and they divorced the following year.[45] Trintignant was at the time married to actress Stéphane Audran. Bardot and Vadim had no children together, but remained in contact for the rest of his life and later collaborated on several projects. Bardot and Trintignant lived together for about two years, spanning the period before and after her divorce from Vadim, although they never married. Their relationship was complicated by Trintignant's frequent absences due to military service and Bardot's affair with musician Gilbert Bécaud.[97]

Jacques Charrier

Bardot and Sami Frey in Saint-Tropez in 1963

After recovering from an overdose in 1958, Bardot began a relationship with actor Jacques Charrier, whom she married in Louveciennes,[98][99] on 18 June 1959. She had an affair with Glenn Ford in the early 1960s.[100] Bardot and Charrier divorced in 1962.[101] Sami Frey was mentioned as the reason for her divorce from Charrier. Bardot was enamoured of Frey, but he quickly left her.[102]

Pregnancy and son

Bardot became pregnant before she and Charrier married.[97] Bardot was extremely dismayed—she had previously stated "I am not a mother, nor do I want to be one"[103]—and sought an abortion; however, abortion was illegal at that time in France.[104] In her book Initiales B. B: Mémoires, she recalled: "I looked at my flat, slender belly in the mirror like a dear friend upon whom I was about to close a coffin lid."[105] Numerous times, she punched herself in the stomach and asked her doctor for morphine in an attempt to abort the baby.[106]

During the final months of her pregnancy, photographers surrounded her house, vying for photos of a pregnant Bardot.[104] Nicolas-Jacques Charrier was born on 11 January 1960, seven months after their wedding.[101] He was Bardot's only child. She had been so wary of the press that she decided to give birth at home.[104] Following his birth, Bardot became depressed and attempted suicide.[103]

She later wrote that her son was a "cancerous tumour" and that she would have "preferred to give birth to a little dog".[106] She also added, "I'm not made to be a mother. I'm not adult enough—I know it's horrible to have to admit that, but I'm not adult enough to take care of a child."[105] She refused to breastfeed Nicolas and whenever she held him, he sensed her agitation and began to cry.[104]

After she and Charrier divorced, the latter gained sole custody of Nicolas.[107] When Nicolas was 12, he asked Bardot if he could stay with her, but she turned him away in favour of party guests. Nicolas was hurt and did not speak to her afterwards. In her memoirs, Bardot wrote that she loved Nicolas "the most in the world", but Nicolas wanted nothing to do with her.[104] When he married Norwegian model Anne-Line Bjerkan in 1984, Bardot was not invited to the wedding.[104][108]

Bardot became a grandmother when the two had daughters in 1985 and 1990. She tried to make peace with him on multiple occasions, but to no avail.[104] In 1997, Charrier and Nicolas sued her and her publisher, Grasset, for the hurtful remarks she had made in her memoir. She was ordered to pay Charrier £17,000 and Nicolas £11,000.[106] In 2018, she stated that she and Nicolas, by then a grandfather himself,[104] were on good terms, speaking regularly and visiting each other once a year.[107][108]

Gunter Sachs

Bardot's third marriage was to German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs, lasting from 14 July 1966 to 7 October 1969, though they had separated the previous year.[97][45][109]

Bernard d'Ormale

Bardot's fourth and last husband was Bernard d'Ormale, who has been described as a former advisor to the right-wing politician, Jean Marie Le Pen.[110] They were married from 16 August 1992 until her death on 28 December 2025.[111]

Other relationships

Bardot with French singer Sacha Distel in 1958

Bardot was invited to the birthday party of musician Sacha Distel in 1958, and they had a much-publicized relationship until 1959.[112] From 1963 to 1965, she lived with musician Bob Zagury.[113] While filming Shalako, she rejected Sean Connery's advances; she said, "It didn't last long because I wasn't a James Bond girl! I have never succumbed to his charm!"[114] In 1967, while married to Sachs, she had a relationship with singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg; they recorded two songs together: "Je t'aime... moi non plus", which was not released until 1986, and "Bonnie and Clyde".[115] In 1968, she began dating Patrick Gilles, who co-starred with her in The Bear and the Doll (1970); but she ended their relationship in 1971.[113]

Over the next few years, Bardot dated bartender/ski instructor Christian Kalt, nightclub owner Luigi "Gigi" Rizzi, writer John Gilmore, actor Warren Beatty, and Laurent Vergez, her co-star in Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman.[113][116] In 1975, she entered a relationship with artist Miroslav Brozek and posed for some of his sculptures. Brozek was also an occasional actor; his stage name is Jean Blaise [fr].[117] The couple lived together for four years, separating in December 1979.[118] From 1980 to 1985, Bardot had a live-in relationship with French TV producer Allain Bougrain-Dubourg [fr].[118] In 2018, in an interview accorded to Le Journal du Dimanche, she denied rumors of relationships with Johnny Hallyday, Jimi Hendrix, and Mick Jagger.[102]

Wealth

Yahoo estimated Bardot's net worth to be around US$65 million.[119] She was estimated to have made about $5 million from her 1997 memoir Initials B.B.[106] After her separation from Vadim, Bardot acquired a historic property dating from the 16th century, called Le Castelet, in Cannes. The fourteen-bedroom villa, surrounded by lush gardens, olive trees, and vineyards, consisted of several buildings. She listed it for sale in 2020, for €6 million.[120] In 1958, she bought a second property called La Madrague [fr], located in Saint-Tropez, for 24 million francs, where she lived until her death in 2025.[121][122]

Bardot expressed support for President Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s.[97][123]

In 1997, Bardot and her publisher, Éditions Grasset, were ordered to pay £28,000 because of "hurtful remarks" in her autobiography about her former husband Jacques Charrier and their son who had originally sued for more than £1 million in damages.[106]

In her 1999 book Le Carré de Pluton (Pluto's Square), Bardot criticized the procedure used in the ritual slaughter of sheep during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Additionally, in a section in the book entitled "Open Letter to My Lost France", she writes that "my country, France, my homeland, my land" was "again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims". She was fined €1,500 (equivalent to €3,000 in 2023) in 1997 for the original publication of this open letter in Le Figaro,[124] fined €2,785 (equivalent to €5,000 in 2023) in 1998 for making similar remarks,[125][126] and fined €4,500 in June 2000 (equivalent to €7,000 in 2023).[43]

In her 2003 book, Un cri dans le silence (A Scream in the Silence), Bardot contrasted her close gay friends with homosexuals who "jiggle their bottoms, put their little fingers in the air and with their little castrato voices moan about what those ghastly heteros put them through", and said some contemporary homosexuals behave like "fairground freaks".[127] In her defence, Bardot wrote in a letter to a French gay magazine: "Apart from my husband—who maybe will cross over one day as well—I am entirely surrounded by homos. For years, they have been my support, my friends, my adopted children, my confidants."[128][129]

In the same book, Bardot also criticized interracial marriage, immigration, the role of women in politics, and Islam. The book contained a section attacking what she called the mixing of genes, and praised previous generations which, she said, had given their lives to push out invaders.[130] On 10 June 2004, Bardot was convicted for a fourth time by a French court for inciting racial hatred and fined €5,000 (equivalent to €7,000 in 2023).[131] Bardot denied the racial hatred charge and apologized in court, saying: "I never knowingly wanted to hurt anybody. It is not in my character."[132]

In 2008, Bardot was convicted of inciting racial/religious hatred regarding a letter she wrote, a copy of which she sent to Nicolas Sarkozy when he was minister of the interior. The letter stated her objections to Muslims in France ritually slaughtering sheep by slitting their throats without anesthetizing them first. She also said, in reference to Muslims, that she was "fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its habits". The trial concluded on 3 June 2008, resulting in a conviction and a fine of €15,000 (equivalent to €20,000 in 2023).[133] The prosecutor stated she was weary of charging Bardot with offences related to racial hatred.[129]

During the 2008 United States presidential election, Bardot branded Republican Party vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as "stupid" and a "disgrace to women". She criticized the former Alaskan governor for her stance on global warming and gun control. She was further offended by Palin's support for Arctic oil exploration and by her lack of consideration in protecting polar bears.[134] On 13 August 2010, Bardot criticised American filmmaker Kyle Newman for his plan to produce a biographical film about her. She told him, "Wait until I'm dead before you make a movie about my life!", otherwise "sparks will fly".[135]

In 2014, Bardot wrote an open letter demanding the ban in France of Jewish ritual slaughter shechita. In response, the European Jewish Congress released a statement saying "Bardot has once again shown her clear insensitivity for minority groups with the substance and style of her letter [...] She may well be concerned for the welfare of animals but her longstanding support for the far-right and for discrimination against minorities in France shows a constant disdain for human rights instead."[136] In 2015, Bardot threatened to sue a Saint-Tropez boutique for selling items featuring her face.[137] In 2018, she expressed support for the yellow vests protests.[138]

In the wake of the MeToo movement (adopted in France as #BalanceTonPorc, or "Squeal on your pig") Bardot called actresses claiming to have been victims of sexual harassment "hypocrital, ridiculous, uninteresting" in an interview with Paris Match. She went on to say that "Many actresses flirt with producers to get a role. Then when they tell the story afterwards, they say they have been harassed [...] in fact, rather than benefit them, it only harms them."[139]

On 19 March 2019, Bardot issued an open letter to Réunion prefect Amaury de Saint-Quentin in which she accused inhabitants of the Indian Ocean situated French overseas territory of animal cruelty and referred to them as "autochtones who have kept the genes of savages". In her letter relating to animal abuse and sent through her foundation, she mentioned the "beheadings of goats and billy goats" during festivals, and associated these practices with "reminiscences of cannibalism from past centuries". The public prosecutor filed a lawsuit the following day.[140]

In June 2021, Bardot was fined €5,000 (equivalent to €6,000 in 2023) by the Arras court for public insults against hunters and the president of the Fédération nationale des chasseurs (National Federation of Hunters) Willy Schraen [fr]. She had published a post at the end of 2019 on her foundation's website, calling hunters "sub-men" and "drunkards" and carriers of "genes of cruel barbarism inherited from our primitive ancestors", and which specifically insulted Schraen. At the time of the hearing, she had not removed the comments from the website.[141] Following her letter sent to the prefect of Réunion in 2019, she was convicted on 4 November 2021 by a French court for public insults and fined €20,000 (equivalent to €23,000 in 2023), the largest of her fines.[142]

Bardot's last husband Bernard d'Ormale was at some point an adviser to Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of National Front (which became National Rally), the main far-right party in France.[45][123] Bardot expressed support for Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front (National Rally), calling her "the Joan of Arc of the 21st century".[143] She endorsed Le Pen in the 2012 and 2017 French presidential elections.[144][145]

Until her final days, Bardot remained involved in the work of her foundation.[146] She continued to take public positions on animal‑welfare issues, including calling for the abolition of stag hunting.[146]

In her final statements, she acknowledged the deaths of Alain Delon, her long‑time friend and former co‑star, who died in August 2024 aged 88,[146] and Jacques Charrier, her former husband and the father of her son, who died in September 2025.[146]

Health

In early 1958, her breakup with Jean-Louis Trintignant was followed by a reported nervous breakdown in Italy, according to newspaper reports. Press reports also noted a possible suicide attempt with sleeping pills two days earlier, a claim that was denied by her public relations manager.[147] She recovered within several weeks.[97]

According to contemporary press reports, on 28 September 1983, her 49th birthday, Bardot ingested a quantity of sleeping tablets or tranquilizers with red wine at her St. Tropez home and then went to the nearby beach, where she was later found in the water and brought ashore.[118] She was taken to the L'Oasis clinic, where her stomach was pumped, and she was discharged later that evening.[118]

In 1984, Bardot was diagnosed with breast cancer.[B] She declined chemotherapy and opted instead for radiation therapy. She recovered in 1986.[150][151]

On 16 October 2025, it was reported that Bardot had been admitted to the Saint-Jean Hospital in Toulon three weeks earlier for surgery for a "serious illness". The operation was successful, and she was reported to be recovering at her home in Saint-Tropez.[152][153][154]

Death and tributes

Bardot died from cancer at her home, "La Madrague", in Saint-Tropez, on 28 December 2025. She was 91.[155][156]

French president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Bardot on social media, describing her as a "legend of the century".[157] The Société Protectrice des Animaux, France's oldest animal‑protection organization, also paid tribute to Bardot, describing her as an "iconic and passionate figure for the animal cause".[158][159]

Legacy

You know, the one thing that was so great in those days was that a woman named Brigitte Bardot came along with Et Dieu... créa la femme. Over here, we were fighting censorship in the 1950s and 1960s, when you couldn't even show you had a bust. We had to cover everything, and when Bardot's movie was released in an art house in Los Angeles, my God, people were lining up all the way down Wilshire Boulevard to see it. I also stood in line, and I thought, "Why can't I do that?"[160]
– Mamie Van Doren, 2000

The Guardian named Bardot "one of the most iconic faces, models, and actors of the 1950s and 1960s". She had been called a "style icon" and a "muse for Dior, Balmain, and Pierre Cardin".[161] In fashion, the Bardot neckline (a wide-open neck that exposes both shoulders) is named after her. Bardot popularised this style, which is especially used for knitted sweaters or jumpers, although it is also used for other tops and dresses. Bardot popularized the bikini in her early films such as Manina (1952) (released in France as Manina, la fille sans voiles). The following year, she was also photographed in a bikini on every beach in southern France during the Cannes Film Festival.[162]

Bardot in Spoleto, Italy, 1961

Bardot gained additional attention when she filmed ...And God Created Woman (1956) with Jean-Louis Trintignant (released in France as Et Dieu… créa la femme). In it, Bardot portrays an immoral teenager who seduces men in a respectable small-town setting. The film was an international success.[45] Bardot's image was linked to the shoemaker Repetto, who created a pair of ballerinas for her in 1956.[163]

In the 1950s, the bikini was relatively well accepted in France but still considered risqué in the United States. As late as 1959, Anne Cole, one of the United States' largest swimsuit designers, said, "It's nothing more than a G-string. It's at the razor's edge of decency."[164] She also brought into fashion the choucroute (lit. 'sauerkraut') hairstyle (similar to the beehive hair style) and gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier.[165] French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir described Bardot as "a locomotive of women's history".[79]

Isabella Biedenharn of Elle wrote that Bardot "has inspired thousands (millions?) of women to tease their hair or try out winged eyeliner over the past few decades". A well-known evocative pose describes an iconic modeling portrait shot around 1960, in which Bardot is dressed only in a pair of black pantyhose, cross-legged over her front and cross-armed over her breasts; known as the "Bardot Pose".[166] This pose has been emulated numerous times by models and celebrities such as Gisele Bündchen,[167] Lindsay Lohan,[168] Elle Macpherson,[169] and Rihanna.[170]

In the late 1960s, Bardot's silhouette was used as a model for designing and modeling the statue's bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic.[59] In addition to popularizing the bikini swimming suit, Bardot was credited with popularising the city of St. Tropez and the town of Armação dos Búzios in Brazil, which she visited in 1964 with her boyfriend at the time, Brazilian musician Bob Zagury.[171] The town hosts a Bardot statue by Christina Motta.[172]

Bardot was idolized by the young John Lennon and Paul McCartney.[173][174] They made plans to shoot a film featuring The Beatles and Bardot, similar to A Hard Day's Night, but the plans were never fulfilled.[45] Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Powell, lightened her hair color to more closely resemble Bardot, while George Harrison made comparisons between Bardot and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, as Cynthia wrote later in A Twist of Lennon. Lennon and Bardot met in person once, in 1968 at the May Fair Hotel, introduced by Beatles press agent Derek Taylor; a nervous Lennon took Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) before arriving, and neither star impressed the other. Lennon recalled in a memoir: "I was on acid, and she was on her way out."[175]

According to the liner notes of his first (self-titled) album, musician Bob Dylan dedicated the first song he ever wrote to Bardot. He also mentioned her by name in "I Shall Be Free", which appeared on his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The first-ever official exhibition spotlighting Bardot's influence and legacy opened in Boulogne-Billancourt on 29 September 2009 – a day after her 75th birthday.[176]

Brigitte Bardot statue in Búzios, Brazil

Bardot was the subject of eight Andy Warhol paintings in 1974.[177] The Australian pop group Bardot was named after her. Kylie Minogue adopted the Bardot "sex kitten look" on the cover of her album Body Language, released in 2003.[178] In addition to Minogue, women who emulated and were inspired by Bardot include Isabelle Adjani, Emmanuelle Béart, Louise Bourgoin, Zahia Dehar, Faith Hill, Paris Hilton, Georgia May Jagger, Scarlett Johansson, Diane Kruger, Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, Elke Sommer, Lara Stone, and Amy Winehouse. Bardot said: "None have my personality." Laetitia Casta embodied Bardot in the 2010 French drama film Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life by Joann Sfar.[179] In 2011, Los Angeles Times Magazine's list of "50 Most Beautiful Women in Film" ranked her number two.[180]

A portrait of Bardot by Warhol, commissioned by Sachs in 1974, was sold at Sotheby's in London on 22 and 23 May 2012. The painting, estimated at £4 million, was part of Sachs' art collection put on sale a year after his death.[181] She inspired Nicole Kidman, who had "Bardot-esque" hair in the 2013 campaign by the British brand Jimmy Choo.[182] In 2015, Bardot was ranked number six in "The Top Ten Most Beautiful Women of All Time" according to a survey carried out by Amway's beauty company in the UK involving 2,000 women.[183]

American alternative rock band Brigitte Calls Me Baby was named after her, inspired by pen-pal correspondence between frontman Wes Leavins and Bardot.[184] Bardot is mentioned in Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire," released in 1989. In 2020, Vogue named Bardot number one of "The most beautiful French actresses of all time".[185] In a retrospective retracing women throughout the history of cinema, she was listed among "the most accomplished, talented and beautiful actresses of all time" by Glamour.[186]

The French drama television series Bardot was broadcast on France 2 in 2023. It stars Julia de Nunez [fr] and is about Bardot's career from her first casting at age 15 and until the filming of La Vérité ten years later.[187] In 2023, she was mentioned in Olivia Rodrigo's song "Lacy" from her album Guts,[188] and Chappell Roan's "Red Wine Supernova" from her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.[189]

On 12 May 2025, the 90-year-old Bardot was interviewed at her house in Saint-Tropez for 47 minutes. The interview was broadcast on the French network BFMTV and was her first television appearance in eleven years. During the interview she discussed her acting career, songs, love of nature, life memories, and her good health, again expressing her commitment to animal rights. She also said, "Feminism isn't my thing. I like guys," regarding her criticism of feminism and feminist organizations that she had called "excessive or ideological", and expressed her views on the legal problems of Nicolas Bedos and Gérard Depardieu, saying: "Those who have talent and put their hands on a girl's buttocks are relegated to the bottomless pit. We could at least let them continue to live. They can no longer live."[190] She also revealed that she did not use a mobile phone or computer.[191][192][193][194]

Discography

Studio albums

YearOriginal titleTranslationSongwriters(s)LabelMain tracksRef.
1956Et dieu... créa la femme
(music from Roger Vadim's motion picture)		"And God Created Woman"Paul MisrakiVersailles[citation needed]
1963Brigitte Bardot SingsSerge Gainsbourg
Claude Bolling
Jean-Max Rivière
Fernand Bonifay
Spencer Williams
Gérard Bourgeois		Philips"L'appareil à sous"
"Invitango"
"Les amis de la musique"
"La Madrague"
"El Cuchipe"		[195]
1964B.B.André Popp
Jean-Michel Rivat
Jean-Max Rivière
Fernand Bonifay
Gérard Bourgeois		"Moi je joue"
"Une histoire de plage"
"Maria Ninguém"
"Je danse donc je suis"
"Ciel de lit"		[196]
1968Bonnie and Clyde
(with Serge Gainsbourg)		Serge Gainsbourg
Alain Goraguer
Spencer Williams
Jean-Max Rivière		Fontana"Bonnie and Clyde"
"Bubble Gum"
"Comic Strip"		[197]
ShowSerge Gainsbourg
Francis Lai
Jean-Max Rivière		AZ"Harley Davidson"
"Ay Que Viva La Sangria"
"Contact"		[198]

Other notable singles

YearOriginal TitleTranslationSongwriters(s)LabelRef.
1962"Sidonie"
(music from Louis Malle's the motion picture Vie Privée)		Fiorenzo Capri
Charles Cros
Jean-Max Rivière		Barclay[199]
1965"Viva Maria!"
(music from Louis Malle's eponymous motion picture)
(with Jeanne Moreau)		Jean-Claude Carrière
Georges Delerue		Philips[199]
1966"Le soleil""The Sun"Jean-Max Rivière
Gérard Bourgeois		AZ[200]
1969"La fille de paille""The Straw Girl"Franck Gérald
Gérard Lenorman		Philips[201]
1970"Tu veux ou tu veux pas"
"(Nem Vem Que Nao Tem)"		"Do You Want or Not"Pierre Cour
Carlos Imperial		Barclay[202]
"Nue au soleil""Naked Under the Sun"Jean Fredenucci
Jean Schmidtt		[203]
1972"Tu es venu mon amour" / "Vous Ma Lady"
(with Laurent Vergez)		"You Came My Love" / "You My Lady"Hugues Aufray
Eddy Marnay
Eddie Barclay		[citation needed]
"Boulevard du rhum"
(with Guy Marchand)
(music from Robert Enrico's motion picture)		"Boulevard of Rhum"François De Roubaix
Jean-Paul-Egide Martini		[citation needed]
1973"Soleil de ma vie"
(with Sacha Distel)		"Sun of My Life"Stevie Wonder
Jean Broussolle		Pathé[204]
1982"Toutes les bêtes sont à aimer""All Animals Must Be Loved"Jean-Max RivièrePolydor[205]
1986"Je t'aime... moi non plus"
(with Serge Gainsbourg)
(recorded but shelved in 1968)		"I Love You... Me Neither"Serge GainsbourgPhilips[206]

Books written

  • Noonoah: Le petit phoque blanc (Grasset, 1978)[207]
  • Initiales B.B. (autobiography, Grasset & Fasquelle, 1996)[208]
  • Le Carré de Pluton (Grasset & Fasquelle, 1999)[209]
  • Un Cri dans le silence (Éditions du Rocher, 2003)[210]
  • Pourquoi? (Éditions du Rocher, 2006)[211]

Accolades

Awards and nominations

Honours

See also

Notes

  1.  Original quote: "Si cette petite doit devenir putain ou pas, ce ne sera pas le cinéma qui en sera la cause."[34]
  2.  Bardot admits to two abortions in her memoir and is the first openly postabortive celebrity to go public with a breast cancer diagnosis, followed by Gloria Steinem and Sondra Locke.[148] Scientific research studies have not found a causal relationship.[149]
  3.  Although it was awarded to her, Bardot refused to attend, as did Catherine Deneuve and Claudia Cardinale.[220]

References

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  2.  Probst 2012, p. 7.
  3.  Cherry 2016, p. 134; Vincendeau 1992, p. 73–76.
  4.  Wypijewski, Joann (30 March 2011). "Elizabeth Taylor: What Becomes a Legend Most". The Nation. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  5.  Handley, John (16 March 1986). "St. Tropez: What Hath Brigitte Bardot Wrought?". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 11 October 2005.
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  9.  Vanderhoof, Erin (5 November 2021). "Brigitte Bardot is Handed Her Sixth Fine for 'Inciting Racial Hatred'". Vanity Fair.
  10.  Poirier, Agnès (20 September 2014). "Brigitte Bardot at 80: still outrageous, outspoken and controversial". The Guardian.
  11.  Bardot 1996, p. 15.
  12.  "Brigitte Bardot: 'J'en ai les larmes aux yeux'". Le Républicain Lorrain (in French). 23 May 2010. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013.
  13.  Singer 2006, p. 6.
  14.  Bigot 2014, p. 12.
  15.  Bigot 2014, p. 11.
  16.  Lelièvre 2012, p. 18.
  17.  Bardot 1996, p. 45.
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  26.  Singer 2006, p. 11–12.
  27.  Singer 2006, p. 12.
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  29.  Caron 2009, p. 62.
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  31.  Bardot 1996, p. 67.
  32.  Singer 2006, p. 19.
  33.  "Paris". Variety. 21 February 1951. p. 62.
  34.  Bardot 1996, p. 68–69.
  35.  Bardot 1996, p. 69.
  36.  Bardot 1996, p. 70.
  37.  Bardot 1996, p. 72.
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  47.  Servat. p. 76.
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  66.  "ABC's 5 Years of Film Production Profits & Losses", Variety, 31 May 1973 p. 3.
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Other sources

Further reading

  • Tast, Brigitte; Tast (Hrsg.), Hans-Jürgen (1982). Brigitte Bardot. Filme 1953–1961. Anfänge des Mythos B.B. Hildesheim. ISBN 3-88842-109-8.
  • Servat, Henry-Jean (2016). Brigitte Bardot – My Life in Fashion (Hardback). Paris: Flammation S.A. ISBN 978-2--08-0202697.

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Brigitte Bardot, Movie Idol Who Renounced Stardom, Dies at 91

“And God Created Woman” made her a world-famous sex symbol in the 1950s. She later gave up acting to devote her life to animal welfare.

Listen to this article · 9:40 min Learn more

By Anita Gates

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Brigitte Bardot, the pouty, tousle-haired French actress who redefined mid-20th-century movie sex symbolism in films beginning with “And God Created Woman,” then gave up acting at 39 to devote her life to the welfare of animals, died on Sunday at her home in southern France. She was 91.

Fondation Brigitte Bardot, which she established for the protection of animals, announced her death.

Ms. Bardot was 23 when “And God Created Woman,” a box-office flop in France in 1956, opened in the United States the next year and made her an international star. Bosley Crowther, writing in The New York Times, called her “undeniably a creation of superlative craftsmanship” and “a phenomenon you have to see to believe.” Like many critics, he was unimpressed by the film itself.

Ms. Bardot’s film persona was distinctive, compared with other movie sex symbols of the time, not only for her ripe youthfulness but also for her unapologetic carnal appetite. Her director in “And God Created Woman” was her husband, Roger Vadim, and although they soon divorced, he continued to shape her public image, directing her in four more movies over the next two decades.

ImageA black and white photo of Ms. Bardot embracing her co-star in a movie bedroom scene. She is bare-armed, and her long hair falls to the middle of her back. He has dark hair and wears a light-colored shirt.
Ms. Bardot with Jean-Louis Trintignant in “And God Created Woman,” a 1956 movie directed by her husband at the time, Roger Vadim. The performance catapulted her to international fame. Credit...Kingsley International

The author Simone de Beauvoir, in a 1959 essay, “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome,” saw Ms. Bardot’s powerful onscreen erotic presence as a feminist challenge to “the tyranny of the patriarchal gaze” represented by the movie camera. The challenge failed, Beauvoir concluded, but it was a “noble failure.”

Few of Ms. Bardot’s movies were serious cinematic undertakings, and she later told a French newspaper that she considered “La Vérité,” Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Oscar-nominated 1960 crime drama, the only good film she ever made.

Nicknamed B.B. (pronounced in French much like the word for baby), she was best known for light comedies like “The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful” (1956), “Babette Goes to War” (1959) and “The Vixen” (1969), but she did work with some of France’s most respected directors.

Early in her career, Ms. Bardot appeared in René Clair’s “Grandes Manoeuvres” (1955). Jean-Luc Godard directed her in the 1963 film-industry drama “Contempt.” Louis Malle was her director on “A Very Private Affair” (1962), a drama that also starred Marcello Mastroianni, and “Viva Maria!” (1965), a western comedy in which she and Jeanne Moreau played singing strippers who become revolutionaries in early-20th-century Central America. That film earned her the only acting-award nomination of her career, as best foreign actress, from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Although she made several films in English, Ms. Bardot never worked in the United States. The closest she came to Hollywood roles were small parts, when she was still unknown, in Robert Wise’s “Helen of Troy” (1956), a Warner Bros. picture filmed in Italy, and “Act of Love” (1953), a Kirk Douglas film shot in France and directed by Anatole Litvak. “Shalako,” a 1968 western in which she was cast opposite Sean Connery, was a British-German production filmed in Spain and England.

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A black and white photo of Ms. Bardot with a pensive expression and her blond hair swept back off her head.
Ms. Bardot in a scene from “La Vérité,” Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Oscar-nominated 1960 crime drama. She called it the only good film she ever made.Credit...Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

At the height of her popularity, almost everything about Ms. Bardot was copied — her deliberately messy hairstyle, her heavy eye makeup and her fashion choices, which included tight knit tops, skinny pants, gingham and flounced skirts showing off bare, sun-tanned legs. In 1969, she became the first celebrity to be used as the model for Marianne, a traditional symbol of the French Republic that adorns town halls across the country.

In a statement on Sunday, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said, “Her films, her voice, her dazzling fame, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne — Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom.”

She helped turn St.-Tropez, once a quiet fishing port in the South of France, into a painfully fashionable resort town after she bought a home there in 1958. Two decades later, when she publicly complained about the deteriorating quality of life in St.-Tropez, the mayor replied, “I ask the question: Who brought vice and lewdness here?”

When Ms. Bardot announced her retirement from films in 1973, she had already begun her work on behalf of animal rights and welfare (although she had told an American reporter in 1965, “I adore furs”). But it was only in 1986, a year after she was made a chevalier of France’s Legion of Honor, that she created the Fondation Brigitte Bardot, based in Paris, which has waged battles against wolf hunting, bullfighting, vivisection and the consumption of horse meat. In 1987, she auctioned off her jewelry and other personal belongings to ensure the foundation’s financial base.

“I gave my beauty and my youth to men,” she was quoted as saying at the time, “and now I am giving my wisdom and experience, the best of me, to animals.”

Four decades later, the foundation said in a statement on Sunday, it has taken in more than 12,000 animals and worked in 70 countries. It called Ms. Bardot “an exceptional woman who gave everything and sacrificed everything for a world that is more respectful of animals.”

In recent decades, she continued to appear in public to promote animal rights, but she gained notoriety for her political views, which many saw as racist. This came to particular light in her two-volume memoir, “Initiales B.B.” (1996-97), in which she made negative comments about several groups, including Muslims.

In 2004, Ms. Bardot was convicted of inciting racial hatred, and fined, for similar comments in “A Cry in the Silence,” a nonfiction best seller in which she referred to Muslims as “cruel and barbaric invaders” and made derogatory comments about gay people.

By 2008, she had been convicted of the same charge five times.

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A black and white photo of Ms. Bardot standing with other protesters carrying placards. She wears sunglasses and a dark scarf under a light colored jacket.
Ms. Bardot, in sunglasses, speaking to the news media while participating in an animal-rights demonstration at the European Union Council headquarters in Brussels in 1995. She devoted decades of her life to the cause of animal welfare.

At best, Ms. Bardot was considered eccentric in her later years, prompting observations that this former sex kitten, as she was often called, had turned into a “crazy cat lady.” Interviewed by the magazine Paris Match in January 2018, she denounced the #MeToo movement, calling actresses’ claims of sexual harassment “hypocritical, ridiculous, without interest.”

A few weeks later, in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, Kate McKinnon, as Ms. Bardot, shouted, “Free Harvey Weinstein!” Catherine Deneuve, played by Cecily Strong in the sketch, explained, “Brigitte is very old and very wrong.”

But Ms. Bardot defended at least one important aspect of her chosen way of life.

“I am not a recluse,” she told The Toronto Star in 1988. “I live like an unsociable person; it is different.”

“People,” she added, “get on my nerves.”

Brigitte Bardot was born into wealth on Sept. 28, 1934, in Paris, the older of two daughters of Louis and Anne-Marie Bardot. Her father was an industrialist, and she grew up in the city’s affluent 16th arrondissement. She began modeling as a teenager and appeared on the cover of Elle magazine at 15.

Her parents objected both to her acting aspirations and to her relationship with Mr. Vadim, then a young assistant to the film director Marc Allégret. This led to the first of at least four reported suicide attempts. The Bardots eventually relented about Mr. Vadim, and she married him in 1952, less than three months after her 18th birthday.

She had already made her film debut that year in “Manina, la Fille Sans Voile,” a romantic adventure that was released in the United States six years later as “The Girl in the Bikini,” and a family comedy, “Le Trou Normand.” By the time “And God Created Woman” made Ms. Bardot a star, she had appeared in more than a dozen films. She would make fewer than four dozen altogether.

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Ms. Bardot, her right hand extended, palm up, smiling as she acknowledges applause. She wears a black top with a stylized catlike image on the front and has thick streaked hair worn off her shoulders.
Ms. Bardot in 2006 at an animal welfare event in Paris. In her later years she insisted on her privacy. “I am not a recluse,” she said. “I live like an unsociable person; it is different.”Credit...Remy de la Mauviniere/Associated Press

Her last movie appearance was a supporting role in “The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot,” a 1973 comedy about a young man’s numerous romantic encounters. (She played an older woman who taught him valuable life lessons.) Her last starring role was in “If Don Juan Were a Woman,” a poorly reviewed 1973 drama directed by Mr. Vadim that was released in the United States in 1976.

Ms. Bardot married four times and had well-publicized long-term romantic relationships with other men, including the actor Jean-Louis Trintignant and the singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. She and Mr. Vadim divorced in 1957. Her second husband (1959-62) was the actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she had a son. After the couple divorced, the boy was brought up by Mr. Charrier’s parents, but he reconciled with his mother in adulthood. Mr. Charrier died in 2025.

Ms. Bardot was married to Gunter Sachs, a German industrialist, from 1966 to 1969. After their divorce, she did not marry again until 1992.

She is survived by her fourth husband, Bernard d’Ormale, a former adviser to the right-wing French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died this year, in January; her son, Nicolas Charrier; a sister, Marie-Jeanne Bardot; two granddaughters; and three great-grandchildren.

Ms. Bardot often spoke with bitterness about her movie career and about fame, which she said had stolen her privacy and happiness. In 1996, she summed up her point of view to a reporter for The Guardian.

“With me, life is made up only of the best and the worst, of love and hate,” she said. “Everything that happened to me was excessive.”


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An Appraisal

From Sex Appeal to the Far Right, Brigitte Bardot Symbolized a Changing France

In the decades after becoming a megastar, the French actress became as known for her politics as she once had been for her acting career.

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By Elisabeth Vincentelli

The actress, singer and activist Brigitte Bardot, who has died at 91, personified France in a literal way: In 1969, she became the first celebrity to be used as the model for Marianne, the symbol of the Republic that has adorned the country’s City Halls as well as official documents, stamps and coins since the French Revolution. Just over a year earlier, she had kicked off her TV special “Le Show Bardot,” wearing little besides thigh-high boots and a French flag, as the national anthem played and then quickly morphed into a peppy new pop tune.

B.B., as she was known, was a new France: bold, free and unconventional.

Yet Bardot wasn’t a consensual figure. You might even say she was among the first problematic stars of the modern era: Admired and reviled in turns, or even simultaneously, she was a star accused of being a bad actress, a cranky, unfiltered misanthrope doubling as an emblem of modernity and liberation, and a tireless crusader for animal rights who cottoned to the far-right National Front and was convicted multiple times for “inciting racial hatred.”

Bardot did not need anyone to cancel her, though: In a way, she did it herself, quitting acting in 1973 before she turned 40. Unlike many star retirements before and since, this one stuck. Many may argue that this left her with enough time on her hands to get in trouble, but for better or for worse, she wanted agency, and she got it.



Long before she became Marianne, Bardot carried an even heavier burden: She was synonymous with womanhood itself. After all, the movie that made her a star in her early 20s was the melodrama “And God Created Woman,” in 1956.

ImageBrigitte Bardot talks to Jean-Louis Trintignant while sitting on a bed in a scene from a film.
Bardot with Jean-Louis Trintignant in “And God Created Woman,” the movie that made her a star in her early 20s.Credit...Globe Photos/ZUMA Press, via Alamy

Under the direction of her then-husband, Roger Vadim, Bardot unleashed a sultry, unapologetic sensuality that made it feel as if she had suddenly opened wide France’s windows and let in a bracing gust of fresh air. Writing in The New York Times in 2018, A.O. Scott described the film as “a watershed in the cinematic history of sex, sunshine and a certain image of France.”

And this being France, it did not take long for Bardot to attract the attention of the intellectual and literary sets. Marguerite Duras wrote an article under the headline “Queen Bardot” in 1958. The following year, Simone de Beauvoir wrote a piece headlined “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome” for Esquire, an admiring article that mentioned the young actress’s love for animals and ended with the thought: “I hope that she will not resign herself to insignificance in order to gain popularity. I hope she will mature, but not change.”

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Brigitte Bardot turns to face the camera while sitting on a wall as several other photographers take her picture.
After her breakthrough in 1956, Bardot was propelled into a whirlwind megastardom that she would never feel comfortable with.Credit...Bettmann/Getty Images

After her breakthrough in 1956, Bardot was propelled into a whirlwind megastardom that she would never feel comfortable with. She was hounded by paparazzi, multiplied affairs and marriages in a quest for love, and made movies at a frenzied pace.

In her essay “Brigitte Bardot or the ‘Problem’ of Women’s Comedy,” the scholar Ginette Vincendeau pointed out that the attention surrounding Bardot tended to focus on her sex appeal, but that most of her hits were comedies, starting with “Naughty Girl” in 1956, that benefited from her playful naturalism and energy, and the way she subverted the stereotype of the “dumb blonde.”

While those films tended to be box-office gold, Bardot also successfully ventured into more serious fare, most notably Henri-Georges Clouzot’s noirish drama “The Truth” (1960) and Jean-Luc Godard’s intoxicating paean to cinema, “Contempt” (1963).

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Brigitte Bardot looks up at Michel Piccoli while sitting in a bathtub in a movie scene.
Bardot with Michel Piccoli in Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Contempt.”Credit...Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The 1960s were Bardot’s decade. In addition to her cinematic activities, she released her first single, “Sidonie,” in 1962 (it was featured in her first film with Louis Malle, “A Very Private Affair”) and then went on to build an impressive discography marked by nonchalant, bemused, piquant performances. A TV special that aired on Jan. 1, 1968 immediately acquired cult status, bolstered by imaginatively staged versions of new Serge Gainsbourg songs like “Comic Strip,” “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Harley Davidson.”

The French sociologist and philosopher Edgar Morin wrote in his book “The Stars” (1972) that Bardot had “admirable qualities of extreme innocence and extreme eroticism,” a paradox that made her intriguing. She had a reputation for being sexually brazen, for example, but she asked Gainsbourg not to release their steamy duet “Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus,” which they had recorded in 1967 when they were having an affair. He obliged, and then rerecorded it in 1969 with another paramour, Jane Birkin, and it became a hit. (The Bardot version finally came out in 1986.)

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A black-and-white close-up of Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg standing together, with Bardot wearing a coat and scarf and looking forward, and Gainsbourg looking to the side.
Bardot with Serge Gainsbourg.Credit...Jean Adda/INA, via Getty Images

She was so fond of singing that she lingered in that career after she stopped making films: Her last single, “Toutes Les Bêtes Sont à Aimer” (“All Animals Are to Be Loved”), came out in 1982, about a decade after she withdrew from cinema.

The decisive moment came when she was making what would turn out to be her last feature, “The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot” (1973). She had noticed that one of the extras had a small goat, and learned that goat was destined for a barbecue. Horrified, Bardot bought the animal — an episode that she later said had compelled her to turn from acting to animal rights campaigning.

In a 1994 interview with The New York Times, Bardot said she had always loved animals: “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. So that’s why I gave up cinema. I stopped making films to look after animals.”

She holed up in the Mediterranean town of St.-Tropez, where she had two properties, one of which was famous from her song “La Madrague.” From there, she dedicated herself full time to a kind of radicalism not often displayed by celebrities.

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Brigitte holds a dog in an animal shelter.
“When I was making films, I discovered there was a difference between loving animals and fighting for them,” Bardot said in a 1994 interview.Credit...Pascal Parrot/Sygma, via Getty Images

“I only live in the world of animal protection,” she said in the 1994 interview. “I speak only of that. I think only of that. I am obsessed.” And not much else seemed to matter — in 1986, she helped finance the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, an animal protection nonprofit, by selling many of her belongings.


As the decades went by, Bardot became as famous for her politics as she once had been for her career. She regularly gave interviews and opined freely, usually to bemoan the state of the world in general and her own country in particular.

She believed, for example, that only the political right — all the way to the extremes of the National Front and its successor, the National Rally — could save a decadent France. Earlier this year, she expressed support for Gérard Depardieu and Nicolas Bedos, who have both been convicted of sexual assault. Among the French luminaries who mourned her on Sunday was the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who said Bardot “was quintessentially French: free-spirited, indomitable, uncompromising. We will miss her dearly.”

In a phone interview with Le Monde newspaper for her 90th birthday, Bardot said: “I don’t need anything. I have everything I need for the way I live. I don’t ever want more than what I have.”

As De Beauvoir had hoped, she did not change.

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