Brigitte Bardot, French screen legend, dies aged 91
Emmanuel Macron leads tributes to actor who became an international sex symbol and later embraced animal rights and far-right politics Brigitte Bardot: a life in pictures Peter Bradshaw on Brigitte Bardot – a zeitgeist-force and France’s most sensational export Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing the cause of animal rights activism, has died aged 91. Among those paying tribute on Sunday was the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who wrote on social media that Bardot had “embodied a life of freedom” and “universal brilliance”. France was mourning “a legend of the century”, he said. Continue reading...
Bardot became a celebrated sex symbol in 1950s and 60s, but later embraced animal rights activism and an increasingly controversial political stance
Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry to become an animal rights activist, has died aged 91.
Bardot shot to international fame with the 1956 film And God Created Woman, written and directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim, and for the next two decades embodied the idea of the archetypal “sex kitten”. In the early 70s, however, she announced her retirement from acting and became increasingly active politically. Her outspoken support of animal rights evolved into incendiary comments about ethnic minorities and open support for France’s far-right Front National, resulting in a string of convictions for racial hatred.
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