Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing animal rights activism and far-right politics, has died aged 91. Her death at her Saint-Tropez home, La Madrague, was announced by her foundation. The cause of death was not made public.
French President Emmanuel Macron led tributes, writing on social media that France was mourning 'a legend of the century'. He said: 'Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory … her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom.'
Bardot shot to international fame in 1956 with And God Created Woman, directed by her then husband Roger Vadim. For the next two decades she was seen as the archetypal 'sex kitten', but in the early 1970s she retired from acting to campaign for animal rights and became increasingly active on the far right.
Her incendiary comments about ethnic minorities, immigration, Islam and homosexuality led to six convictions for inciting racial hatred between 1997 and 2008. In one case, she was fined €15,000 for describing Muslims as 'this population that is destroying us'.
Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, which Bardot supported, said she was 'a woman of heart, conviction and character'. Le Pen herself called Bardot 'exceptional for her talent, courage, frankness and beauty'. Tributes also came from Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini and culture minister Alessandro Giuli.
Born in Paris in 1934, Bardot studied ballet and worked as a model before meeting Vadim. She appeared on the cover of Elle at age 15 and later starred in Doctor at Sea. Her breakthrough came with And God Created Woman, which made her a global icon.
