Brigitte Bardot, French Film Icon and Animal Rights Activist, Dies at 91

Brigitte Bardot, the French actress who became one of the screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist, died on Sunday at 91, her foundation said, according to CBS News and NBC News.

Bruno Jacquelin of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation told The Associated Press that she died at her home in southern France. He gave no cause of death and said no funeral or memorial plans had been made. She had been hospitalized last month after a period of ill health, and her staff told Agence France-Presse that she had “minor surgery” in October for an unspecified ailment.

Bardot became an international star with the 1956 film “And God Created Woman,” directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim, according to CBS News and NBC News. CBS News said her career spanned about 28 films and three marriages, and that in 1969 her features were chosen as the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France.

She stepped away from movies in 1973 and turned to animal rights. NBC News reported that she founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986. CBS News said her later activism included opposing the slaughter of baby seals in the Arctic. “Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told the AP on her 73rd birthday, in 2007, according to CBS News.

Tributes came quickly. French President Emmanuel Macron said, “We are mourning a legend,” according to CBS News, and NBC News reported that he said she “embodied a life of freedom.” Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally, which Bardot publicly supported in her later years, called her a “passionate patriot,” NBC News reported. CBS News described her later political views as far right.

Bardot appeared on the cover of Elle magazine at 14, CBS News reported. Her best-known films include “Contempt,” directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1963, which CBS News called her one critically acclaimed film. She retired to her villa in Saint-Tropez at 39.