image source, Sam Levin/Kobal/Shutterstock
French actress Brigitte Bardot, known for her controversial statements, died at the age of 91 after many years of absence from the world of fame and cinema.
On Sunday, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation announced “with great sadness and sorrow the death of its founder and president, Brigitte Bardot, the famous international actress and singer, who chose to give up her prestigious artistic career to devote her life and efforts to caring for animals and supporting her foundation,” in a statement to Agence France-Presse.
Bardot was admitted to the hospital in the city of Toulon in France last October, to undergo a surgical operation whose nature was not revealed, then she returned to her home in the coastal city of Saint-Tropez in southern France to rest, where she died.
In recent years, Brigitte Bardot, who was a symbol of liberation in France during the 1950s, became famous for her bold statements on politics, immigration, feminism, and animal hunting, and she was convicted of making racist insults on the basis of some of her positions.
Her family life
image source, Getty Images
Bardot was born into a wealthy family in Paris in 1934. She was passionate about dancing, tried her hand at modeling, and became a professional actor and singer.
She was married four times during her life. At the age of eighteen, she married the director, Roger Vadim, who assigned her the role of Juliet in the movie “And God Created Woman,” which caused shock when it was shown and established her status as a symbol of seduction.
She later married French actor Jacques Charrier, and in 1960, at the height of her fame, she gave birth to her only son, “Nicolas,” amid widespread press attention.
She said at the time that she lacked maternal instinct, so she left her husband at the time, Jacques Charrier, to raise their son.
She later married the German millionaire, Gunther Sachs, and then finally the French businessman Bernard Dormal.
Her most prominent works
image source, Getty Images
Bardot left behind nearly fifty films, most notably:
- The film “Et Dieu…crea la femme” or “And God created woman” in 1956.
- La Verité, or “The Truth”, 1960.
- The film “Le mepris” or “Contempt” in 1963.
- Viva Maria movie, 1965.
- Her last film was L’histoire très bonne et très joyeuse de Colinot trousse-chemise, or “The Beautiful and Very Fun Story of Colinot trousse-chemise,” released in 1973.
She also sang professionally and had many successful songs, most of which she collaborated with the famous French musician, Serge Gainsbourg, who wrote her most famous songs.
Among her most famous songs:
- “I love you… me neither”
Brigitte Bardot retired from cinema and the limelight at the height of her brilliance in 1973, and spent most of her life after that between her main home, “La Madrage”, in the coastal city of “Saint-Tropez”, in southern France, and her second, quieter residence, “La Garrigue”, where she rescued tortured animals and ran the foundation that bears her name, which was founded in 1986.
Controversial statements
image source, Getty Images
During her life, the former seduction star took positions and made statements that sparked widespread controversy.
In her final years, Bardot was tried several times on charges of racial hatred, as she objected to the method of slaughtering animals in the Islamic and Jewish religions.
But the way she expressed her criticism was unjustified and even illegal.
In 1999, she wrote that “my homeland is being invaded by a dense population of foreigners, especially Muslims.” This subjected Brigitte Bardot to a heavy fine.
She then criticized mixed marriages, which take place between people of different races, and insulted gay men.
Bardot was a frequent visitor to the court, to the point that a French prosecutor said in 2008 that he was “tired” of bringing charges against her.
In 2013, the former French star of seduction threatened, in a letter she sent to the then French president, François Hollande, to abandon her country and emigrate to Russia, unless the French government intervened to save the lives of two elephants who were threatened with death because they were infected with tuberculosis.
Bardot threatened that she would follow the example of the actor, Gerard Depardieu, who decided to leave France in protest against the high income tax rate imposed on him.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to grant Depardieu Russian citizenship.
Bardot, who is considered one of the strongest animal rights defenders in France, said that she would apply for Russian citizenship unless the two elephants, “Baby” and “Nepal,” who are in the Lyon Zoo, are pardoned.
It was decided to cull the two elephants infected with tuberculosis, for fear that the infection would spread from them to other animals in the park and to visitors. Pardo said in a statement, “If the authorities carry out this cowardly and shameful act of killing Baby and Nepal (the two sick elephants), then I will take Russian citizenship and leave this country, which has become nothing more than a cemetery for animals.”
Among the most prominent of these statements was what she issued in 2018 against the “Me Too” campaign against sexual harassment against women.
“Me Too” is a global campaign against sexual harassment and assault against women. It was widely launched in 2017 after accusations that the American film producer, Harvey Weinstein, harassed a number of women in the film industry.
For months, following sexual harassment allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood stars spoke about their experiences and support for victims of sexual assault.
But Brigitte Bardot criticized these actresses and described their behavior as “hypocrisy.”
Bardot’s statements came in response to a question posed by the French magazine “Paris Match”, during an exclusive interview that discussed her opinion of actresses who objected to sexual harassment in the film industry.
The French star said at the time: “The majority of cases are hypocritical, laughable and meaningless.”
She added: “Many actresses flirt with producers until they get a role in a work, and then they talk about being harassed out of a desire for fame. This harms them and does not actually serve them.”
Bardot added that she enjoyed the attention she received when she was young and while working in the film industry.
She said: “I was never a victim of sexual harassment. I was happy with compliments about my beauty or charm. It’s a nice compliment.”