France’s Eternal Icon, Brigitte Bardot, Dies at 91

PARIS: Brigitte Bardot, the French film icon whose explosive beauty and unabashed sensuality defined an era, and who later channeled her fame into fervent animal rights activism while courting controversy with far-right polemics, died on Sunday at her home in Saint-Tropez. She was 91.

Her death was announced by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which stated she passed away at La Madrague, her sanctuary on the French Riviera. “The world has lost its most famous Frenchwoman, its most beautiful secret,” the foundation’s announcement read. “She chose, at the height of her glory, to turn away from the spotlight to devote herself entirely to the cause that was dearest to her heart: the defense of animals.”

The cause of death was not disclosed. In October, Bardot had been briefly hospitalized for what her staff termed a “minor” medical intervention, during which she forcefully denied online rumors of her death, chiding “imbeciles” for spreading falsehoods.

Born in Paris on September 28, 1934, into a prosperous, conservative family, Bardot trained as a ballet dancer before being discovered by cinema. Her role in Roger Vadim’s 1956 film And God Created Woman was a cultural detonation. With her sun-kissed hair, defiant gaze, and liberated sexuality, she became the ultimate symbol of a post-war France shaking off austerity and moral constraint. The film not only made her an international star but also permanently transformed Saint-Tropez from a quiet fishing village into a global symbol of glamour and hedonism.

Over the next two decades, she starred in nearly 50 films, working with directors like Jean-Luc Godard (Contempt), Louis Malle, and Henri-Georges Clouzot. She was more than an actress; she was “BB,” a phenomenon—a style icon whose beachside fashion sparked worldwide trends, a singer whose breathy recordings of “Harley Davidson” and “Bubble Gum” topped the charts, and the living embodiment of Marianne, the national symbol of the French Republic.

In a stunning move at age 39, Bardot retired from cinema in 1973. “I gave my beauty and my youth to men,” she later said. “I am now giving my wisdom and experience to animals.” This began her second act. The catalyst was an encounter with a goat destined for slaughter on the set of her final film. She rescued it, and a lifelong mission was born. In 1986, she founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which grew into a major force in animal welfare, boasting tens of thousands of supporters.

A Complex and Contradictory Legacy

President Emmanuel Macron led tributes, calling her a “national treasure” and “a legend of the 20th century whose freedom and voice enchanted France and the world.” However, his homage, like many, glossed over the darker chapters of her later years.

After leaving film, Bardot’s public stance grew increasingly contentious. She was convicted five times for inciting racial hatred, targeting primarily Muslim communities and once referring to the people of Réunion as “savages.” In her writings, she voiced strong opposition to immigration and the “Islamisation of France,” aligning herself firmly with the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen.

“I am ashamed to be French in a country that is in the process of putting down its own roots in favor of a worrying, invasive Islamism,” she wrote. These views, expressed in best-selling books and media interviews, profoundly alienated many who had adored her as a symbol of liberation.

Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, hailed her as “the incarnation of a France that is proud, free, and beautiful.” Marine Le Pen herself praised Bardot as “incredibly French: free, untamable, whole.”

Her final book, Mon BBcédaire, published shortly before her death, continued this pattern, containing disparaging remarks about LGBTQ+ communities and lamenting a France she saw as “dull, sad, submissive.”

A Private Farewell

In her final years, Bardot lived in reclusive solitude at La Madrague, surrounded by rescued animals. In a poignant 2024 interview, she reflected, “My first life was for others. My second is for the animals, who are better than humans.” She expressed a desire for a simple, private burial in the garden of her home, under a plain wooden cross identical to those marking the graves of her beloved pets, “far from the crowd of onlookers and hypocrites.”

Brigitte Bardot’s life was a story of radical reinvention and relentless contradiction: a global sex symbol who rejected her own image, a champion of the voiceless who silenced others with hateful speech, and a national icon who spent decades critiquing the nation she embodied. She leaves behind a legacy as fractured and fascinating as the century she helped define—a testament to beauty, rebellion, compassion, and prejudice, inextricably intertwined.

 

 

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