Brigitte Bardot on the set of "Le Mepris" ("Contempt"). (Photo by Marceau-Cocinor/Les Films Concordia/ Georges de Beauregard/ Carlo Ponti/ Collection Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
Brigitte Bardot, the French actress, sex symbol, animal rights activist and political far-right supporter, has died.
Bardot died Sunday at her home in southern France, Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, confirmed to The Associated Press.
Brigitte Bardot’s death
What we know:
Bardot was 91 and had been hospitalized last month.
What we don't know:
No cause of death or funeral arrangements have been announced.
What they're saying:
’We are mourning a legend,'' French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on social media.
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Brigitte Bardot’s life
The backstory:
Bardot rose to global stardom as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie "And God Created Woman." Directed by then husband Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.
Her tousled, blond hair, voluptuous figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars, even as she struggled with depression through more than two dozen films and three marriages.
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.
Bardot once described her childhood as "difficult" and said that her father was a strict disciplinarian who would sometimes punish her with a horse whip.
Vadim, a French movie producer who she married in 1952, saw her potential and wrote "And God Created Woman" to showcase her provocative sensuality, an explosive cocktail of childlike innocence and raw sexuality.
In 1969, her features were chosen to be the model for "Marianne," the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and coins.
Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant media attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.
Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a French actor who she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.
Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, and they divorced three years later.
"I was looking for roots then," she said in an interview. "I had none to offer."
As an animal rights activist, Bardot traveled to the Arctic to expose the slaughter of baby seals. She also condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments and spoke out against Muslim slaughter rituals. In 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest recognition.
"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, since it has no power, no words to defend itself."
Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after "The Woman Grabber." As fans brought flowers to her home Sunday, the local St. Tropez administration called for "respect for the privacy of her family and the serenity of the places where she lived."
Brigitte Bardot’s movies
Big picture view:
Among her films were "A Parisian" (1957); "In Case of Misfortune," in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; "The Truth" (1960); "Private Life" (1962); "A Ravishing Idiot" (1964); "Shalako" (1968); "Women" (1969); "The Bear And The Doll" (1970); "Rum Boulevard" (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 to display Bardot in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.
"It was never a great passion of mine," she said of filmmaking. "And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it."
Bardot’s far-right politics
Dig deeper:
Bardot later became an extremist, often blasting the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.
She was convicted and fined five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred, in incidents inspired by her opposition to the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays.
Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described Le Pen, an outspoken nationalist with multiple racism convictions of his own, as a "lovely, intelligent man."
In 2012, she supported the presidential bid of Marine Le Pen, who now leads her father's renamed National Rally party. Le Pen paid homage 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," because many played "the teases" with producers to land parts.
She said she had never had been a victim of sexual harassment and found it "charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass."
The Source: This report includes information from The Associated Press.