Screen siren Brigitte Bardot, whose portrayal of free-spirited talents made her an international sex symbol and the pride of France, and who turned her back on movie stardom in 1973 to become an animal rights activist, has died, according to French media and the Associated Press.
She was 91 years old.
Bruno Jacqueline of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Protection of Animals told The Associated Press that he died at his home in southern France. He did not reveal the cause of death and said no arrangements had yet been made for funeral or memorial services. He was admitted to the hospital last month after ill health.
In a statement to the Agence France-Presse news agency, the foundation said: “The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with great sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer who decided to leave her distinguished career to devote her life and energies to animal welfare and her Foundation.”
His death comes two months after his death, his staff said in a statement to French news agency AFP “minor surgery” In October 2025 for an unspecified illness.
At the time, Bardot quickly dismissed false online reports that she had died.
“I don’t know which fool spread this fake news about my disappearance, but I know that I am fine and have no intention of giving up.” he posted on x,
But a month later, in November 2025, Bardot was hospitalized again french news outlets Described a “serious” health problem.
Born a brunette in Paris on September 28, 1934, Bardot became world famous after dying her hair blonde and starring in the 1956 film “And God Created Woman,” directed by her first husband Roger Vadim.
The provocative French melodrama about a promiscuous teen who scandalizes Saint-Tropez was a box office hit both abroad and in the United States, despite mixed critical reviews and condemnation by watchdog groups such as The National Legion of Decency.
Dubbed the “sex kitten” Created by British filmmaker Tony Tensor, Bardot became successful when the so-called sexual revolution was underway, women were adopting birth control, and many moviegoers were seeking racial fare.
French feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir called her “the locomotive of women’s history” and “the most liberated woman of post-war France” in a 1959 essay titled. “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome.”
French President Charles de Gaulle declared that Bardot was a “french export As important as Renault cars.
Meanwhile, Bibi, as the French affectionately called her, appeared in more than 40 films, including a handful of Hollywood productions, before retiring from acting at the age of 39.
But before she retreated to her estate on the French Riviera to live a more secluded life, Bardot bared it all in the pages of Playboy to mark her 40th birthday.
And soon she was advocating for a new cause.
“I gave my youth and my beauty to men,” Bardot Later said, “But I pass on my wisdom and experience to the animals.”
Bardot appealed to the Danish Queen to stop the mass killing of dolphins in the Faroe Islands.
Bardot became a hero to animal rights activists. And in 1985, when France awarded her the Legion of Honor medal, Bardot insisted it was for her work saving animals – not for her films.
“I take this Legion of Honor for my fight in favor of animals,” Bardot announced,
In 1986, the former actor founded Brigitte Bardot Foundation and used his fame to campaign against, among other things, the eating of horse meat and the hunting of turtle doves in France.
In her later years, Bardot became attracted to the far-right He was repeatedly fined for politics and inciting racial hatred against Muslim immigrants in FranceAccording to news reports,
In His 1996 memoirBardot angered many fans by announcing her support for far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Her fourth husband, businessman Bernard d’Ormel, was an advisor to Le Pen.
The Nazis occupied Paris when Bardot was growing up in a luxurious seven-bedroom apartment and dreaming of becoming a ballerina.
Raised by conservative Catholic parents, Bardot was resentful of her upbringing. But she was allowed to take dance classes. And in 1950, at the age of 15, she appeared on the cover of Elle magazine after the editor spotted her at a train station.
This was followed by a film audition the following year, where Bardot met Vadim, who was 24 at the time.
Despite the age difference they fell in love. And over her parents’ objections, Bardot and Vadim married on December 21, 1952, three months after her 18th birthday.
Bardot began a film career, including a small part in the 1953 Hollywood production “Act of Love”, starring Kirk Douglas.
Three years later, while shooting an Italian film titled “Mio Figlio Nerone”, Bardot dyed her hair blonde at the director’s insistence, accelerating her career.
Bardot proved to be box office gold and starred in “The Truth” (1960) and “Viva Maria!” She also received critical acclaim for her roles in internationally produced films such as (1965) But she mostly stayed away from Hollywood, although she did play herself in the 1965 comedy “Dear Brigitte.”
Bardot did not think much about her acting.
She reportedly said, “I started out as a lousy actress and have remained one ever since.” According to The Guardian,
Bardot also recorded about 60 pop songs in the 1960s and 1970s, many of them in collaboration with French singer Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she had an affair during her marriage to her third husband, German millionaire Günter Sachs.
One of Bardot’s most famous musical endeavors was a cover Stevie Wonder’s “You’re the Sunshine of My Life” with French singer Sacha Distel.
By her own admission, Bardot’s personal life was tumultuous.
Her marriage to Vadim began to crumble on the set of “And God Created Woman” when she began an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant.
This was one of several infidelities that Bardot admitted to over the years.
Two years later, Bardot married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she had her only child—a son named Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, born in January 1960.
Bardot wrote in her memoirs that she “was not meant to be a mother.” She wrote that her unborn child was like a “cancerous tumor” that she tried to remove by punching herself in the stomach.
When that marriage broke down after three years, Carrier gained custody of their son.
Father and son later sued Bardot for “hurtful comments” in the memoir and were awarded $36,200 in damage,
Bardot and her son, who lived in Norway, later reconciled. And she met her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Her three-year marriage to Sachs also featured several infidelities in 1966, but it ended in an amicable divorce.
“A year spent with Bardot was worth 10 years spent with anyone else,” Sachs reportedly said After the marriage is over.
Bardot rarely revisited her acting career in public statements after it ended. In a 2007 interviewWhen asked how she became an icon of French cinema, she seemed confused.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think I came and went at the right time. My wild and free side irritated some, and irritated others.”
