Payam Javan: Brigitte Bardot, the legendary French actress who rose to global fame as a 1960s sex symbol before transitioning into a life of fervent animal rights activism and controversial political stances, has died at the age of 91. Representative Bruno Jacquelin of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation confirmed she passed away Sunday at her home in southern France. While no official cause of death was released, the actress had been hospitalized recently, and her passing has prompted a wave of tributes, including a statement from President Emmanuel Macron mourning the loss of a national “legend.”
Emerging as an international sensation in the 1956 film And God Created Woman, Bardot became the definitive “screen siren” of the 20th century. Her blonde hair and rebellious sensuality challenged the bourgeois respectability of the era, eventually leading her to become the face of “Marianne,” the official emblem of the French Republic. Despite her immense success in over two dozen films, Bardot struggled with the pressures of fame and depression, ultimately retiring from the film industry in 1973 at the age of 39 to seek a life away from the relentless pursuit of the paparazzi.
Following her retirement, Bardot reinvented herself as a militant defender of animal welfare. She established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and famously traveled to the Arctic to protest seal hunting. Her activism earned her the Legion of Honor in 1985; however, her later years were increasingly defined by her alignment with far-right politics. She became a vocal supporter of the National Front (now National Rally) and was convicted five times in French courts for inciting racial hatred, primarily due to her vitriolic public statements regarding immigration and Muslim religious rituals.
Bardot remained a polarizing figure until the end, recently sparking further debate by criticizing the #MeToo movement as “hypocritical.” Despite the controversies surrounding her political shifts and legal battles, her impact on both the cinematic world and the global animal rights movement remains undeniable. As fans gather to leave flowers at her St. Tropez villa, she is remembered by allies like Paul Watson as a woman whose true allegiance was not to humanity, but to the “voiceless” animals she dedicated half her life to protecting.
