SAINT-TROPEZ, FRANCE—The “Sex Kitten” who famously preferred the company of animals to humans has taken her final curtain call. Brigitte Bardot, the pouty-lipped siren who reshaped post-war cinema and became the global face of French sensuality, died Sunday at her home in Saint-Tropez. She was 91.
Her death was announced by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, the animal welfare organization to which she devoted the final five decades of her life. In a statement to AFP, the foundation lamented the loss of its president, who “abandoned her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to those who have no voice.”
From Sex Symbol to Sovereign Rebel
Born in Paris in 1934, Bardot’s rise was nothing short of a cultural explosion. In 1956, her role in And God Created Woman—directed by the first of her four husbands, Roger Vadim—shattered the prim conventions of the era.
- The Face of France: Bardot was so synonymous with French identity that her features were used as the model for Marianne, the national emblem of the Republic.
- The Retirement: At the height of her fame in 1973, she shocked the world by retiring from acting at just 39. “I was sick of being beautiful every day,” she famously said.
- The Activist: She traded film sets for ice floes, famously traveling to the Arctic in 1977 to embrace a white harp seal pup, a photo that helped spark a global ban on the commercial seal hunt.
A Legacy of Conflict and Contradiction
While millions adored “BB” for her beauty and her bravery in the defense of animals, her later years were marked by a sharp descent into political controversy.
- Political Extremism: Bardot became a vocal supporter of the far-right National Rally (formerly the National Front) and its longtime leader Marine Le Pen.
- Hate Speech Convictions: Between 1997 and 2022, French courts convicted her no fewer than six times for inciting racial hatred. Her inflammatory remarks often targeted the Muslim community, immigrants, and the inhabitants of the French island of Reunion.
- The Final Critique: In her final years, she remained unrepentant, frequently insulting feminist activists and dismissing the #MeToo movement as “hypocritical.”
Tributes to a ‘Legend’
President Emmanuel Macron led the national tributes on Sunday, calling Bardot a “legend of the 20th century.”
“With her films, her voice, her dazzling glory, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, and her face that became Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom.” — President Emmanuel Macron
Even in death, Bardot remained true to her anti-establishment roots. She reportedly requested a simple wooden cross above her grave in the garden of her home, La Madrague, rather than a state funeral. She wished to be buried “the same as for her animals,” away from what she called the “crowd of idiots.”
As the flags in Saint-Tropez fly at half-mast, the world remembers a woman who was simultaneously a symbol of liberation and a lightning rod for division. Whether remembered as the girl on the table or the woman on the ice floes, Brigitte Bardot was, until her final breath, “indomitable and whole.”