AFP–AP–BNS

French cinema legend Brigitte Bardot has died at the age of 91, her foundation announced on Sunday.

In recent months, Bardot had rarely appeared in public, but she was hospitalized in October and in November issued a statement denying rumors of her death.

“With immense sadness, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces the death of its founder and president, the world-famous actress and singer Mrs. Brigitte Bardot, who chose to give up her prestigious career in order to devote her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” the statement sent to the AFP news agency said.

No further details about Bardot’s death have been disclosed so far.

The Associated Press reports that Bardot died at her home in southern France.

Tributes to the cinema legend, known in her home country by the initials “BB,” poured in shortly after news of her death broke.

Brigitte Bardot was born on September 28, 1934, in Paris and grew up in a wealthy, traditional Catholic family. She was married four times in total and had one child, Nicolas, with her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Bardot a legend of the past century.

“Through her films, her voice, her dazzling fame, her initials (BB), her struggles, her generous passion for animals, and a face that became ‘Marianne,’ Brigitte Bardot embodied freedom of life,” the president wrote on the social media platform X, referring to the female symbol of France depicted in works of art.

“We mourn a legend of the century,” he added.

“Her beauty astonished the entire world”

Bardot rose to fame after her role in the 1956 film And God Created Woman (Et Dieu… créa la femme), in which she played a seductive temptress.

The film, directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim, caused a scandal because of scenes in which the actress appeared nude.

At the peak of her film career, having appeared in around 28 films and married for the third time, Bardot became a symbol of a nation freeing itself from traditional bourgeois norms and one of France’s most famous stars.

After ending her film career in 1973, Bardot devoted her subsequent activities to the protection of animal rights.

Her work outside cinema was also impressive: Bardot traveled to the Arctic to protest the killing of seal pups, condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments, and opposed sending monkeys into space.

In 1986, she founded the foundation bearing her name, which, according to its website, now has 70,000 supporters and around 300 employees.

“Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press in 2007. “I don’t care about my past fame. It means nothing compared to a suffering animal, because it has no power, no words to defend itself.”

Later, Bardot lost popularity because of her extreme statements on animal protection issues and her criticism of immigration to France, especially the influx of Muslims.

She was convicted five times in French courts for inciting racial hatred.

Jordan Bardella, leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN), was among the first to pay tribute to her memory.

“Today the French have lost their beloved ‘Marianne,’ whose beauty astonished the entire world,” he wrote on X.