Iconic actress and model Brigitte Bardot has passed away at the age of 91 in her hometown of the French Riviera, her foundation has confirmed.
“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 statement read.
The cause of death was not made public. Bardot was briefly hospitalised in October for what her office called a “minor” procedure.
Some outlets have reported the star was rushed to hospital from her home in Saint-Tropez to the nearby town of Toulon.
Bardot shot to international fame when she starred as a teenage bride in the 1956 film And God Created Woman, which was written and directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim.
For the next three decades, Bardot embodied the archetype of the “sex symbol” with a string of high-profile movie roles, before retiring from acting in the early 1970s to become an outspoken campaigner on animal rights.
French president Emmanuel Macron was among those to pay tribute to Bardot following news of her death.
“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,” Macron wrote.
The town hall of Saint Tropez, meanwhile, said Bardot was its “most radiant ambassador” and part of “the collective memory of Saint-Tropez, which we must preserve”.
Bardot’s legacy is not without controversy. Towards the end of her life, the actress became increasingly involved in far right politics and rhetoric, to the point of being fined six times by the French courts over her incendiary comments about racial minority groups, including France’s Muslim communities.
Bardot was married four times, including to Vadim from 1952 and 1957, Jacques Charrier from 1959 and 1962, Gunter Sachs between 1966 to 1969; and Bernard d’Ormale since 1992.
Lead image: Getty Images
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