Brigitte Bardot, French 1960s movie star and animal rights activist, dies at 91

Brigitte Bardot, the French sex symbol of the 1960s who became one of the biggest screen stars of the 20th century and later became an animal rights activist and food rights activist, has died, according to her foundation. He was 91 years old.

“The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with great sadness the passing of its founder and President, Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to leave her prestigious career to devote her life and energy to the welfare of animals and her Foundation,” the foundation said in a statement sent to CBS News.

Bruno Jacquelin, who owns the foundation, told the Associated Press that the late actor died on Sunday in southern France. He did not explain the cause of his death and said that no arrangements have been made for a funeral or memorial services. He was admitted to the hospital last month.

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

At the height of her cinematic career that included 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation overflowing with bourgeois respectability. His flowing, white hair, strong body and irreverent attitude made him one of France’s most popular stars.

Such was her widespread appeal that 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 appears on portraits, postage stamps and even money.

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

Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. He went to the Arctic to whistle at a seal slaughter; criticized the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and he was against Muslim slaughtering practices.

“Man is an insatiable hunter,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday in 2007. “I don’t care about my former honor. That means nothing in the face of a suffering animal, since it has no strength, no words to defend itself.”

His activism earned him the respect of his countrymen and, in 1985, he was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor.

To turn right

However, over time, he fell out of favor as his animal protection diatribes took on an extreme tone. He was always critical of the influx of immigrants to France, especially Muslims.

He was convicted and fined five times in French courts for inciting racial hatred, in incidents fueled by his opposition to the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep on annual religious holidays.

Bardot’s marriage in 1992 with her fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a former adviser to the leader of the National Front. Jean-Marie Le Pencontributed to his change in politics. He described Le Pen, an outspoken nationalist with racist beliefs, as “a lovely, intelligent man.”

In 2012, he wrote a letter supporting the presidential bid of Marine Le Pen, who now leads her father’s party, which has been renamed National Rally. Le Pen paid tribute on Sunday to a “unique 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 played “jokes” with producers to get parts.

She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “pleasant to be told I’m pretty or have a nice little ass.”

Special upbringing, but “difficult”.

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.

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

But it was the French film producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to express her sensuality, an explosive cocktail of childlike innocence and raw sexuality.

The film, which portrays Bardot as a bored newlywed sleeping with her in-laws, was a major influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.

The film was a box-office hit, and made Bardot a star. Her girlish pout, small waist and generous piercings were often more appreciated than her talent.

“It’s a shame I did so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like a nobody.”

Bardot’s shameless, off-screen romance with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant continued to shock the nation. It dissolved the boundaries between his public and private life and turned him into a hot prize for the paparazzi.

Bardot was not accustomed to the limelight. She blamed 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 take pictures of her pregnant.

Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a French actor whom he married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave her son to his father, and later said that she was constantly depressed and unprepared for the duties of motherhood.

“At that time I was looking for roots,” he said in an interview. “I had nothing to offer.”

In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales BB,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “aggressive and abusive.”

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

Among his films were “The Parisian” (1957); “In the Case of Misfortune,” in which he co-starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “Ravishing Stupid” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).

With the exception of 1963’s “Contempt”, directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely technically complex. Usually they were cars to show Bardot in scantily clad clothes or frolicking naked in the sun.

“It’s never been my favorite thing to do,” he said of filming. “And it can kill sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”

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

Reinventing yourself in old age

He emerged ten years later as a new person: An animal rights activist, his face wrinkled and his voice deep from years of heavy smoking. She gave up her jet-set lifestyle and sold movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation dedicated exclusively to the prevention of animal cruelty.

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

He attacked old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free horse race, and campaigned for wolves, rabbits, cats and pigeons.

“It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how things are going slowly … my depression takes over,” Bardot told the AP when asked about her anti-racist beliefs and opposition to Islamic ritual killings.

In 1997, several cities removed Bardot-inspired portraits of Marianne after the actress expressed anti-immigrant sentiment. That same year, he received death threats after the sale of horse meat was banned.

Bardot once said that she identified with the animals she was trying to save.

“I understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” said Bardot. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was always surrounded by international newspapers.”