Brigitte Bardot’s funeral held in France, with hundreds turning out to pay tribute to the 1960s silver screen icon

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Paris – Brigitte Bardot’s funeral was held on Wednesday with a private service and a public memorial service in Saint-Tropez, the French Riviera resort where she lived more than half a century after retiring as a movie star in her prime. Animal rights activist and right-wing activist He died on December 28 at the age of 91 at his home in the south of France. President Emmanuel Macron said after his death that France “weeps for a legend.”She died of cancer after two operations, said her husband, Bernard d’Ormale, in an interview with Paris Match magazine released on Tuesday evening. “He was knowledgeable and concerned about the fate of the animals until the end,” he said.

The hearse carrying the coffin of Brigitte Bardot passes the crowds as it arrives at the Eglise Notre-Dame de l’Assomption for the funeral of the late film star and cultural icon, Jan. 7, 2026, Saint-Tropez, France.

Arnold Jerocki/Getty

Residents and well-wishers applauded the funeral procession as the coffin of Bardot, once one of the world’s most photographed women and the defining smile of the 1960s, was carried through the city’s narrow streets.

The service began with the sound of Maria Callas’ “Ave Maria” at Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Catholic Church in the presence of Bardot’s husband, son and grandchildren, as well as guests invited by the family and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals. Hundreds of people gathered in the small town to watch the farewell on the big screens placed in the harbor and two plazas. After the church service, Bardot will be buried “very privately” in a cemetery overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, according to Saint-Tropez town hall.He has long called Saint-Tropez his refuge from the celebrity who once made him a name.

Brigitte Bardot’s coffin is brought into the church during her funeral, Jan. 7, 2026, Saint-Tropez, France.

Arnold Jerocki/Getty

A public tribute will be held at a site near the witches of the woman whose statue once symbolized post-war French freedom and sensuality.

“Brigitte Bardot will always be with Saint-Tropez, she was the most brilliant ambassador,” the town hall said last week. “With his presence, his personality and his aura, he marked the history of our city.” Bardot settled down in the last decades at her seaside villa, La Madrague, and retired from filmmaking in 1973 at the age of 39, during an international career that included more than a dozen films.

French actress Brigitte Bardot poses with the large sombrero she brought back from Mexico, as she arrives at Orly Airport in Paris, France, on May 27, 1965.

AP

He later emerged as an animal rights activist, founding and supporting a foundation dedicated to the protection of animals.”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.While he retired from the film industry, he remained a visible and often controversial figure through decades of animal rights advocacy and far-flung political links.

Movie icon Brigitte Bardot is seen petting a dog in Paris, France, on Feb. 10, 1982.

Duclos/AP

He will be buried in the sea cemetery, where his parents are also buried.

The cemetery, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, is also the final resting place of several cultural figures, including the film producer Roger Vadim, Bardot’s first husband, who directed her breakthrough film “And God Created Woman,” a role that made her a worldwide star.

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