Veteran French screen legend and singer Brigitte Bardot has passed away at the age of 91, her foundation announced on Sunday. Bardot became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry to become an animal rights activist, The Guardian reported.
“The Brigitte Bardot foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” the foundation said in a statement sent to AFP on Sunday, without specifying the time or place of death.
Who was Brigitte Bardot?
Born in 1934 in Paris, Bardot grew up in a traditional Catholic family but excelled enough as a dancer to be allowed to study ballet, gaining a place at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris. At the same time she found work as a model, appearing on the cover of Elle in 1950 while still 15.
By the age of 15, she later recalled, “I was seeking something, perhaps a fulfilment of myself,” BBC reported.
She shot to international fame with the 1956 film ‘And God Created Woman’, written and directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim.
In the early 1970s, 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.
Brigitte Bardot: An animal rights campaigner
After nearly 50 films, she announced she was retiring to devote her life to animal welfare in 1973.
“I gave my beauty and my youth to men”, she said. “I’m going to give my wisdom and experience to animals”.
She raised 3m francs (then about £300,000) to establish the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, by auctioning off her jewellery and film memorabilia, according to BBC.
She became a vegetarian, attacked the Chinese government for “torturing” bears, and spent hundreds of thousands on a programme to sterilise Romanian stray dogs.
Bardot is survived by her fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale and her son.