Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist and far-right supporter, has died at age 91. Bardot died Sunday at her home in southern France, according to Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals. Speaking to the AP, he gave no cause of death, and said no arrangements have been made for funeral or memorial services. Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie And God Created Woman. Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.
At the height of a career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, voluptuous figure, and pouty irreverence made her one of France's best-known 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 appeared on statues, postage stamps, and even on coins. "We are mourning a legend,'' French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.
Bardot's second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals, condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments, and opposed Muslim slaughter rituals. "Man is an insatiable predator," Bardot told the AP 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." Her activism earned her compatriots' respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation's highest recognition. Later, however, she fell from public grace as her animal protection diatribes took on a decidedly extremist tone. She frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.
In 2012, she wrote a letter in support of 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 that most actors protesting sexual harassment were "hypocritical" and "ridiculous" because many played "the teases" with producers to land parts. She said she found it "charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass." With the exception of 1963's critically acclaimed Contempt, 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.
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