Brigitte Bardot, the French actress who set the standard for a generation of female sex symbols in the 1960s and devoted her later life to animal rights, has died. She was 91.

Her death was announced Sunday in a statement by her foundation, saying Bardot had chosen to abandon “her prestigious movie career to dedicate her life and energy” to defend animal welfare. It didn’t provide further details on her death.

The archetype of beauty to millions of men, Bardot spawned an era of curvy, pouting, insouciant actresses with her role as a self-assured small-town sexpot in And God Created Woman (1956). Throughout the 1970s, she was the model for “Marianne,” the female incarnation of the French republic whose profile adorns stamps and coins.

But Bardot quit making movies at age 39, and she courted controversy with comments about marginalized members of society. 

A Paris court fined her €5,000 (about $6,100 at the time) in 2004 for expressing “disgust” with France’s tolerance of Muslim immigrants in her 2003 autobiography, A Cry in the Silence. The book also referred to gay people as “freaks” and said the unemployed don’t want to work.

In a 2018 interview with Paris Match, she criticized the #MeToo movement against men who abuse positions of power, saying many actresses claiming sexual harassment had willingly offered their bodies to further their careers. Unlike Catherine Deneuve, who also spoke out against the movement, Bardot didn’t back down and apologize.

Her life was as tumultuous as those of women she portrayed. She was married four times and once said, “It’s better to be unfaithful than to be faithful and not want to be.”

Playboy magazine ranked her No. 4 on its 1999 list of the 20th century’s 100 sexiest stars, behind Raquel Welch, Jayne Mansfield and, at No. 1, Marilyn Monroe.

In 1986, she created a Paris-based foundation that supports animal refuges, sterilizes stray cats and dogs and funds projects including a horse-veterinarian center in Tunisia and a leper farm in India. The organization has also pushed for restrictions on bull fighting, whale hunting and the wearing of fur.

“I gave my youth and beauty to men,” she said in a 1999 interview. “I’m now giving my wisdom and experience to animals.”

Model at 13

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on Sept. 28, 1934, in Paris and was already dancing and modeling at age 13. She was on the cover of Elle magazine at 15 and made her first film at 18.

The release of And God Created Woman established Bardot as an international star and Saint-Tropez as a major resort. While the film — about a woman torn between two brothers — didn’t have anything that would qualify as nudity today, its scenes of Bardot undressing and dancing barefoot to African music scandalized viewers in France and America. Bardot was married at the time to the film’s director, Roger Vadim.