Brigitte Bardot, French cinema icon and animal rights activist, passes away at 91

Brigitte Bardot, icon of French cinema and known for unconventional film choice that triggered several scandals in France, passed away at 91. The actor’s death was announced by Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, reported The Associated Press. She spent the later years of her life as a militant animal rights activist and formed the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.

Bardot became an international celebrity playing the role of  a sexualied teen bride in the 1956 movie ‘And God Created Woman.’ Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked. At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolise a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blond hair, voluptuous figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France's best-known stars, as per PTI.

Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for Marianne, the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot's face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins. Bardot's second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She travelled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.

“Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press, as reported by PTI, on her 73rd birthday in 2007. “I don't care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”

Her activism earned her compatriots' respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honour, the nation's highest honour. Later, however, she fell from public grace as her animal protection diatribes took on a decidedly extremist tone and her far-right political views sounded racist as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims. She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticised the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.

Bardot's 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d'Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift, according to PTI. She described the outspoken nationalist as a lovely, intelligent man. In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party  now renamed National Rally  in her failed bid for the French presidency.

In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were hypocritical and ridiculous because many played the teases with producers to land parts. She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.

A privileged, but difficult upbringing
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.Bardot once described her childhood as difficult and said her father was a strict disciplinarian who would sometimes punish her with a horse whip.

But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote And God Created Woman to showcase her provocative sensuality, an explosive cocktail of childlike innocence and raw sexuality. The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s. The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and generous bust were often more appreciated than her talent.

“It's an embarrassment to have acted so badly, Bardot said of her early films. I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing,” she had said in her later interviews with the International media.

Bardot's unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.

Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.

Among her films were 'A Parisian' (1957); 'In Case of Misfortune,' in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; 'The Truth' (1960); 'Private Life' (1962); 'A Ravishing Idiot' (1964); 'Shalako' (1968); 'Women '(1969); 'The Bear And The Doll' (1970); 'Rum Boulevard' (1971); and 'Don Juan' (1973).