She became internationally known for dancing barefoot mambo in the film «And God Created Woman», her tousled hair and intense energy radiating a magnetic sexuality rarely seen in mainstream cinema until then.
A global idol is born: Brigitte Bardot.
At the age of just 21, she scandalized the censors and captivated the public. Her liberated performance in the 1956 film, made by her husband Roger Vadim, marked a decisive break with the demure heroines of the previous era.
Brigitte Bardot, often referred to in France simply as «B.B.» and whose final years were marked by animal rights campaigns and far-right political sympathies, has died at the age of 91, her foundation announced today. The cause was not immediately known.
«FOLLOWING HER CLICHÉS»
Born in Paris on 28 September 1934, Bardot grew up in an upper-middle-class family. She described herself as a shy, awkward child who «wore glasses and had long straight hair».
At the age of 15, however, she graced the cover of Elle magazine, beginning a modeling career that soon led to film.
Bardot's character in the film «And God Created Woman» was the embodiment of liberated femininity. The controversy, however, fueled her appeal. Bardot became a symbol of France in the 1950s and 1960s.
Her fascination extended far beyond French cinema. At 15, Bob Dylan is said to have written his first song about her, ’Song for Brigitte«, which was never released, and Andy Warhol painted her portrait.
Bardot's ability to subvert traditional gender roles made her not only a sex symbol, but also an idol of pop culture and a reference point for changing social views.
In 1959, Simone de Beauvoir wrote an article for Esquire magazine in which she praised Bardot's strong sense of freedom. «Be.Be does not try to scandalize,» the feminist philosopher wrote. «She follows her inclinations. She eats when she is hungry and makes love with the same unformed simplicity.
«Moral lacunae can be corrected, but how could Be.Be be cured of that dazzling virtue - authenticity? It is her very essence.» De Beauvoir concluded: «I hope she will grow, but not change.».
«THEY HAVE LET ME DOWN MANY TIMES»
Despite her influence, Bardot felt that the life of a celebrity isolated her. She often spoke of being a prisoner of her own fame, unable to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.
«No one can imagine how horrible it was, such an ordeal,» he reflected decades later. «I couldn't go on living like that.».
Her personal life was marked by four marriages, highly publicized relationships and documented battles with depression.
On her 26th birthday she was found unconscious in a house on the French Riviera after a suicide attempt. Rumours of another suicide attempt circulated years later when she mysteriously cancelled a party for her 49th birthday and then turned up in hospital.
Alongside acting, Bardot had a successful musical career. Her collaborations with singer-songwriter Serge Gensbourg, including «Je t'aime ... moi non plus», led to recognition but also caused controversy. In the late 1960s, she modelled a bust of Marianne, the allegorical, female figure who personifies the French Republic and its values.
But Bardot did not find much satisfaction in the praise she was receiving. «I was very happy, very rich, very beautiful, very flattered, very famous and very unhappy,» she told Paris Match magazine around the time of her 50th birthday. «I have been disappointed many times. I've had really terrible disappointments in my life. That's why I chose to retire, to live on my own.’.
«THIS IS THE ONLY FIGHT I WANT TO GIVE»
Bardot made the last of her 42 films in 1973. Disillusioned with the industry, she declared that the film world was «rotten» and left public life.
«I will have devoted 20 years of my life to cinema, that's enough,» he said in a television interview at the time.
He settled in the French resort of St Tropez, where he found solace among the animals and the Mediterranean landscape.
There, he began a passionate advocacy for animal welfare. «This is the only fight I want to fight, the only direction I want to give my life,» Bardot said in 2013.
Her devotion to animals became legendary. In 1986, she founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals, auctioning off her personal mementos the following year to raise money for her cause.
Bardot supported prominent activists, such as anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, and campaigned strongly against animal abuse, occasionally threatening to leave France over animal welfare controversies.
When actor Gerard Depardieu accepted Russian citizenship after a public dispute with the French authorities in 2013, Bardot threatened to follow his example if France killed two sick circus elephants.
For much of the last years of her life, Bardot lived alone in Saint-Tropez, in the company of numerous cats, dogs and horses.
This passion, as she often implied, was the antidote to her frustrating relationships. «I gave my beauty and my youth to men,» she once said. «I will give my wisdom and experience to animals.».
«FEMINISM IS NOT MY FORM»
As her activism grew, so did the reactions to her political statements.
Bardot's public comments on immigration, Islam and homosexuality led to a series of convictions for inciting racial hatred.
Between 1997 and 2008, she was fined six times by the French courts for her comments, particularly those targeting France's Muslim community.
In one case, a Paris court fined her €15,000 for describing Muslims as «this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its actions».
In 1992, she married Bernard d'Ormal, a former adviser to the far-right National Front, and later publicly supported the party's successive leaders, Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter, Marine Le Pen. Bardot called Le Pen «Joan of Arc of the 21st century».
Yet despite her polarising views, Bardot's influence endured, whether in fashion - with the media reporting regular returns of her signature hairstyle - or through frequent documentaries and books celebrating her rare influence on French cinema.
Asked by French channel BFM TV in May 2025 if she considered herself a symbol of the sexual revolution, she said: «No, because before me, many atrocities had already happened - they weren't waiting for me. Feminism is not my forte. I like men.».
In the same interview, she was asked how often she reflected on her film career. «I don't think about it,» she replied, «but I don't dismiss it, because thanks to it I am known all over the world as someone who defends animals.»
