(COVER PHOTO: AFP/Getty Images by way of NCS Newsource)
By Lee Smith
(NCS) — A logo of rebellious youth and sweetness, Brigitte Bardot helped usher within the sexual revolution within the films together with her sensual, uninhibited performances in movies like Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt.” Then within the second half of her life, she carved an unconventional path as a fierce advocate for animal rights.
The legendary French actress died at 91, in response to an announcement from her basis offered to NCS on Sunday.
“The Brigitte Bardot Foundation pays tribute to the memory of an exceptional woman who gave everything and gave up everything for a world more respectful of animals,” the muse mentioned. “Her legacy lives on through the actions and struggles the Foundation continues with the same passion and the same fidelity to her ideals.”
Known in France merely by her initials B.B., Bardot tantalized audiences and scandalized ethical authorities together with her uncooked show of sexuality within the Nineteen Fifties and ‘60s. She grew to become a field-workplace phenomenon within the United States and helped to popularize overseas movies with Americans at a time when censorship in Hollywood films forbade frank discussions of intercourse, a lot much less nudity.
Describing her influence, Life journal mentioned in 1961, “Everywhere girls walk, dress, wear their hair like Bardot and wish they were free souls like her.”
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Bardot, saying she “embodied a life of freedom.”
“Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne (the symbol of the French republic), Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom,” Macron posted on X.
“We mourn a legend of the century,” he added.
‘As much a hunter as she is a prey’
She divided public opinion as one of many first actually trendy celebrities. Long earlier than Madonna, Bardot pursued a number of amorous affairs with males on her personal phrases and was unapologetic about her hedonistic habits and life-style in a pre-feminist period.
“In the game of love, she is as much a hunter as she is a prey,” French author Simone de Beauvoir noticed in a well-known 1959 essay first revealed in Esquire, “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome.” “The male is an object to her, just as she is to him. And that is precisely what wounds masculine pride.”
The star dismissed her personal appearing skills and infrequently gained critics’ reward, however her charismatic character was plain for practically twenty years in 40-plus movies resembling “…And God Created Woman” (1956), “Contempt” (1963) and “Viva Maria!” (1965). She additionally grew to become a preferred singer in France within the ‘60s.
Aside from her films and music, Bardot’s style sense saved her at the forefront of popular culture within the second half of the twentieth century. Her bleached blond hair, worn lengthy and straight, or up in a twist with tresses cascading down, in addition to her penchant for informal, type-becoming outfits saved her picture modern-wanting lengthy after the ‘60s have been over. Jane Fonda and Julie Christie have been among the many actresses who would mimic her, whereas fashions such Kate Moss and Claudia Schiffer would additionally copy her horny, tousled look.
A London artwork supplier defined what made Bardot such a trendsetter whereas holding a photograph exhibit in 2009 to rejoice the star’s seventy fifth birthday.
“She was natural, she went barefoot, she didn’t brush her hair, she wore no makeup, she wore (flat-soled) pumps because she trained as a ballet dancer,” James Hyman instructed The Guardian.
“It’s that image of freedom, exuberance and youth. She stood up as being authentic, instinctive, free. For women, it was a feminist thing; it was about women behaving as men did, taking lovers and having affairs.”
A life pivot, for a trigger
After retiring from films at age 39 in 1973, Bardot used her celeb to deliver consideration to the plight of animals.
“I gave my beauty and my youth to men, and now I am giving my wisdom and experience, the best of me, to animals,” she instructed a crowd at a 1987 public sale of her memorabilia to lift funds for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for animal welfare.
But she remained a controversial determine, dealing with criticism for expressing anti-immigrant attitudes when she denounced Islamic rituals involving the slaughter of animals. Her 1992 marriage to Bernard d’Ormale, an affiliate of far-proper politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, cemented the concept that she was out of contact with a contemporary and numerous France. She was convicted for inciting racial hatred a number of instances, together with by insulting the Muslim group, in response to Reuters information company.
In a tribute to the film star, far-proper figurehead Marine Le Pen, Jean-Marie’s daughter, mentioned Bardot was an “exceptional woman” who can be “greatly missed by us.” Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella, chief of France’s far-proper National Rally occasion, referred to as the actress a “woman of heart, conviction and character.”
Further thumbing her nostril at public expectations, Bardot aged naturally and resisted cosmetic surgery like so a lot of her Hollywood contemporaries. The one-time “sex kitten” of the films let her hair go grey and didn’t cover the traces on her face after years of tanning.
‘A woman’s proper to take pleasure in intercourse’
Born September 28, 1934, Bardot grew up in an higher center-class Parisian household far faraway from the glittery leisure world. She aspired to be a ballerina, however her look on the quilt of Elle journal at age 15 attracted the eye of movie director Marc Allégret and particularly his younger assistant, Roger Vadim. Six years older than Bardot, Vadim, an aspiring filmmaker, would turn into a love curiosity to the long run actress and play a serious position in her rise to film stardom.
Her household initially disapproved of the connection and barred them from seeing each other. Distraught, Bardot tried to commit suicide – the primary of a number of reported makes an attempt – however her dad and mom relented and agreed to let her marry Vadim in 1952 when she turned 18.
Bardot progressively constructed up her profession with small roles in French movies, and he or she captivated photographers at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival together with her youthful, spontaneous look. Three years later, Vadim directed his first movie, “…And God Created Woman,” along with his spouse as a younger temptress who comes between two brothers. Audiences couldn’t get sufficient of Bardot – from the second she first seems nude behind clothesline sheets till a sweat-drenched erotic dance close to the movie’s finish.
“People pretended to be shocked by Brigitte’s nudity and unabashed sensuality when, in fact, they were attacking a film that spoke without hypocrisy of a woman’s right to enjoy sex, a right up to that point reserved for men,” Vadim wrote three many years later.
Filmed within the glamorous French city of Saint-Tropez, “…And God Created Woman” put the then-fishing village on the map and helped to make the city well-known all through the world. In an announcement Sunday, the city referred to as Bardot the “most dazzling ambassador” whereas expressing its “great sadness” over her demise.
“Brigitte Bardot now belongs to the collective memory of Saint-Tropez, which we must preserve. She will continue to live on in the soul of our city,” the assertion mentioned.
The milestone French movie was the primary of 5 instances that Vadim would direct Bardot, and the massive hit established her as a Top 10 US field-workplace attraction in 1958. Prior to that, overseas actresses grew to become worldwide celebrities solely after starring in American films, however Bardot resisted strain to go to Hollywood.
The Vadims divorced in 1957 within the wake of Bardot’s affair with costar Jean-Louis Trintignant, the primary of a number of excessive-profile romances that may make her a paparazzi favourite.
“My life was totally turned upside down,” Bardot instructed NCS in 2007. “I was followed, spied upon, adored, insulted. My private life became public. Overnight, I found myself imprisoned, a gilded prison but a prison nonetheless.”
Bardot and the paparazzi
At the peak of her stardom, Bardot moved between mild intercourse comedies resembling “Une Parisienne” (1957), “Come Dance With Me!” (1959) and “Babette Goes to War” (1959) to extra dramatic roles in “En Cas de Malheur” (1958) and “La Vérité” (1960). In the latter, she gained acclaim enjoying a suicidal younger girl who goes on trial for homicide after unintentionally killing her lover.
Its filming was an emotionally making an attempt time for Bardot, coming shortly after the beginning of her solely baby, Nicolas, and as her second marriage, to actor Jacques Charrier, was unraveling. Bardot gave beginning whereas trapped in her Paris residence, outdoors of which hordes of photographers have been camped awaiting the momentous occasion.
After ending the tough position in “La Vérité,” Bardot made world headlines when she tried to kill herself in September 1960 on her twenty sixth birthday. A boy miraculously found the star – who had taken tablets and reduce her wrists – within the woods on a rustic property after she had gone lacking.
But Bardot proved to be a survivor, even weathering criticism that she was a foul mom for giving up custody of her son. She quickly tackled the autobiographical position of an emotionally troubled star trapped by fame in “Vie Privée” (1962).
In a scene based mostly on an actual incident that crystallized among the public’s response to Bardot at the time, a cleansing woman lashes out at the star’s character in an elevator, indignant over her promiscuity whereas the maid’s brother is combating within the Algerian War.
As “the most photographed woman in the world” (in response to the 1963 quick “Paparazzi”), the star reached her profession peak within the mid-Sixties with the a lot-publicized filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt” and Louis Malle’s “Viva Maria!”
Critics accused Godard, a number one exponent of the experimental French New Wave, of promoting out when he made a giant-funds film with Bardot. Ironically, the movie was concerning the risks of commercialism, and the director reportedly added a protracted bed room scene close to the start displaying the actress’ nude bottom to appease producers’ calls for for extra flesh.
“Contempt” stays the one Bardot movie thought-about a traditional, however it’s atypical of the star’s standard mild fare. Instead of her charming, vivacious nature, she seems sullen and withdrawn as her screenwriter-husband prostitutes himself for an obnoxious Hollywood producer, even utilizing her as bait to draw and win the person’s favor.
“Viva Maria!” can be the final Bardot film to have an effect outdoors France, teaming her with Jeanne Moreau in a romp about feminine revolutionaries in Mexico. The subsequent few years would see a collection of disappointments, together with a British-made Western with Sean Connery, “Shalako” (1968), and a closing movie with Vadim, “Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman” (1973).
While her movie profession was stalling, Bardot emerged as a preferred singer in France. She collaborated with Serge Gainsbourg and different musicians on songs like “Harley-Davidson,” “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Comic Strip.” One of her French TV specials even aired on NBC in 1968, presenting the star in a collection of music movies practically 15 years earlier than MTV.
‘Motivated by the defense of animals’
After threatening for years to retire, Bardot lastly referred to as it quits within the early ‘70s. Making films by no means appeared to fulfill her.
“All of this – most of this – bores me,” she instructed The Saturday Evening Post as early as 1965. “I try to be my best, to be always prepared, but I am not an actress. Lady Macbeth does not interest me. I am just Brigitte Bardot. In the movies or out, I do not think I will ever be anything else.”
However, she didn’t disappear from the highlight utterly, as a substitute focusing her vitality on serving to animals. Her marketing campaign to guard child seals from hunters in Canada attracted a lot press consideration within the late ‘70s, with pictures of the star holding a seal cub. But it additionally uncovered her to ridicule.
“When I gave up movies, some people said I was protecting animals to gain publicity,” she instructed The New York Times in 1994. “Now, if there was one woman in the world who didn’t need publicity, who always had too much publicity, it was me. Even today, there are people who ask, why don’t you help children, or the people in Bosnia, or old people, or AIDS victims? There are always people telling me I should worry about something else.”
She would unload a lot of her private results to lift cash for her basis, together with a diamond ring from third husband Gunter Sachs, and signal over the possession to La Madrague, her longtime beachfront house in St. Tropez.
Just as she made her personal guidelines as a movie star, Bardot provoked controversy as an animal rights activist. She was convicted and fined at least 5 instances in France for inciting racial hatred over her remarks about Muslims.
Her unorthodox viewpoints continued to make headlines till as just lately as 2025, when she spoke out in protection of former costar, Gerard Depardieu, who was dealing with sexual assault accusations. This got here after her earlier feedback deriding many accusers within the wake of the #MeToo motion.
Bardot was such an icon in France by the late ‘60s that she became the first celebrity to be used as a model for Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic often displayed as a statue in town halls. But the French public’s notion of her modified as she grew older, with many concerning her as an eccentric, illiberal crank.
However, her advocacy for animals didn’t know any ideological boundaries. She ridiculed 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as “a disgrace to women” over the candidate’s views on international warming and gun rights.
And extra just lately, she denounced President Donald Trump when he initially sought to take away restrictions on importing African elephant trophies (a transfer he later placed on maintain): “Your shameful actions confirm the rumors that you are unfit for office,” she wrote in a letter to the US chief, in response to Agence France-Presse.
But she denied ever being political, telling Vanity Fair in 2012 that every part she did was “motivated by the defense of animals.”
“I don’t feel old or used up,” Bardot, then practically 80, instructed the journal, “and I don’t have time to waste thinking about aging, because I live only for my cause.”
The star at all times downplayed a potential return to the films: “Oh la la! The page has turned. Cinema is finished for me.”
NCS’s Billy Stockwell contributed to this report.
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