Brigitte Bardot Dies at 91: France Mourns the Original ‘Sex Kitten’ Who Became a Warrior for Animals
Brigitte Bardot, the French actress who became an international sex symbol in the 1950s and later a fierce animal-rights campaigner, has died at 91 in Saint-Tropez.
The curtain falls on the barefoot bombshell
PARIS—On a rain-softened spring evening, the city that once applauded her every pout and shimmy now stands hushed. Brigitte Bardot, the platinum-blond Riviera rebel who rewrote the grammar of desire in the 1950s and later traded stardom for street protests, died peacefully at her La Madrague estate in Saint-Tropez. She was 91.
Her son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, confirmed the death to Agence France-Presse, saying she "slipped away among her dogs, the waves she loved, and the memories of a thousand flashbulbs." No cause was given, though friends noted a recent bout of respiratory frailty.
From Et Dieu… créa la femme to the barnyard barricades
Bardot’s 1956 breakthrough, And God Created Woman, turned the sleepy fishing port of Saint-Tropez into a global playground and made the 22-year-old the embodiment of a new, liberated European sensuality. Over night, paparazzi staked out her beach, American columnists compared her to Aphrodite, and Simone de Beauvoir hailed her as "the locomotive of women’s sexual autonomy."
Yet by 1973, at 39, she walked away from a $8 million contract, declaring cinema "a machine that devours souls." She emerged years later in combat boots and army surplus, leading raids on slaughterhouses and suing magazines that still printed bikini shots from her heyday. "I was a sex symbol," she told Paris Match in 1989. "I decided to become a protest symbol instead."
"I’ve known the roar of adoration and the silence of abattoirs. Both echo, but only one keeps me awake at night."—Brigitte Bardot, 1996
A second act louder than the first
In 1986 she founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Respect of Animals, bankrolled by auctioning her jewelry, real estate, and the rights to 1,200 hours of screen outtakes. The charity claims credit for France’s 2010 ban on seal-product imports and the 2021 law outlawing wild animals in traveling circuses.
- More than 250,000 stray dogs sterilized through her mobile clinic program
- €18 million raised for anti-fur campaigns across Europe
- A private archive of 4,300 letters from fans who converted to vegetarianism after reading her 1999 manifesto, Le Cri des Cieux
"She weaponized fame like no one before her," says French culture historian Dr. Lucie Arquette. "The same face that sold lipstick now shut down puppy mills."
Controversy in the twilight
Bardot’s later years were punctuated by court fines for "inciting racial hatred" over incendiary comments on immigration and Islam. Critics labeled her a fallen icon; supporters argued she spoke with the blunt trauma of a woman who had spent decades fighting dogfights she could never fully win.
President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute late Monday, praising "a French legend who turned the spotlight from herself toward those who cannot speak." Flags at the Élysée Palace will fly at half-mast through Wednesday.
Final scene
Per her wishes, there will be no state funeral. Instead, her ashes will be scattered off the coast of Saint-Tropez, a marine conservation zone her foundation helped establish. The family asks that donations be made to local animal shelters in lieu of flowers.
As the news broke, fans left sunflowers—her favorite—on the steps of the Cinémathèque Française. One handwritten note read simply: "Thank you for proving a woman can be both desired and dangerous to the status quo."