Brigitte Bardot, legendary French actress, model, and animal rights activist has sadly passed away at the age of 91.
The news was announced on Sunday, December 28 by Bruno Jacquelin of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Protection of Animals, who confirmed in a statement to the Associated Press that she passed while at her home in southern France.
“The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation,” the statement read.
French President Emmanuel Macron called Bardot a “legend” of the 20th century.
“Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom. French existence, universal brilliance. She touched us. We mourn a legend of the century,” Macron wrote on X, referring to the female symbol of the French republic in art.
To honor one of the most recognizable actresses from the 1960s, weâre looking back at five of Bardotâs most memorable film roles, including the role that rocketed her into stardom.
Babette Goes to War (Babette sâen va-t-en guerre)
GettyBardot stars as Babette, a naive French country girl in London helps the war effort by parachuting into German-occupied France to help kidnap an important German general. She bungles through a heroic adventure of plot and counter-plot. Directed by Christian-Jaque.
Viva Maria!
GettyThe film stars Bardot and Jeanne Moreau as two women named Maria who meet and become revolutionaries in the early 20th century. It also stars George Hamilton as Florès, a revolutionary leader.
Maria II (Bardot) is the daughter of an Irish terrorist. After her fatherâs death, she meets Maria I (Moreau), a performer, and decides to stay with the circus, and on her debut as a singer, unintentionally invents the striptease and makes the circus famous. Their inadvertent encounter with a socialist revolutionary lands them leading a revolution against the dictator, the capitalists, and the Church. Co-written and directed by Louis Malle.
The Truth (La Vérité)
GettyBardot stars as Dominique Marceau, who is being tried for the murder of Gilbert Tellier (Sami Frey) accounts by different witnesses paint a picture of the kind of relationship the two used to share. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Contempt (Le Mépris)
GettyBased on Alberto Moraviaâs 1954 novel “Il disprezzo,” the film follows a playwright, Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) whose marriage begins to fall apart during the troubled production of a film adaptation of Homerâs “The Odyssey,” as his wife (Bardot) accuses him of using her to court favor with the film’s brash American producer. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
And God Created Woman (Et Dieu⦠créa la femme)
GettyThe actress shot to international fame in 1956 with “And God Created Woman,” written and directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim.
She stars as Juliette Hardy, an 18-year-old orphan whose unbridled appetite for pleasure shakes up all of St. Tropez. Her sweet but naïve husband Michel (Jean-Louis Trintignant) endures beatings, insults, and mambo in his attempts to tame her wild ways.
The post Brigitte Bardot: Five Film Roles That Defined Her Iconic Career appeared first on EntertainmentNow.