Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (French: [bʁiʒit anmaʁi baʁdo]; 28 September 1934 – 28 December 2025), often referred to by her initials B.B., was a French actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist. She became one of the best-known symbols of the sexual revolution and gained international fame for portraying characters associated with hedonistic lifestyles. Although she withdrew from the entertainment industry in 1973, she remained a major pop culture icon. She appeared in 47 films, performed in several musicals, and recorded more than 60 songs. She was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1985.

Born and raised in Paris, Bardot was an aspiring ballerina during her childhood. She began her acting career in 1952 and achieved international recognition in 1957 for her role in And God Created Woman (1956), catching the attention of many French intellectuals and earning her the nickname "sex kitten". She was the subject of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay The Lolita Syndrome, which described her as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the most liberated woman of France. She won a 1961 David di Donatello Best Foreign Actress Award for her work in The Truth (1960). Bardot later starred in Jean-Luc Godard's film Le Mépris (1963). For her role in Louis Malle's film Viva Maria! (1965), she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress. French president Charles de Gaulle called Bardot "the French export as important as Renault cars".

After retiring from acting in 1973, Bardot became an animal rights activist and created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. She was known for her strong personality, outspokenness, speeches on animal welfare, and for her long-term support of far-right views. She was fined twice for public insults, and five times for inciting racial hatred for her criticism of Muslims in France and calling residents of Réunion "savages". She responded: "I never knowingly wanted to hurt anybody. It is not in my character [...] Among Muslims, I think there are some who are very good and some hoodlums, like everywhere." Bardot was a member of the Global 500 Roll of Honour of the United Nations Environment Programme and received several awards and accolades from UNESCO and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Early life

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on September 28, 1934, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris to Louis Bardot (1896–1975) and Anne-Marie Mucel (1912–1978). Bardot's father, who originated from Ligny-en-Barrois, was an engineer and the proprietor of several industrial factories in Paris. Her mother was the daughter of an insurance company director. She grew up in a conservative Catholic family, as had her father. She suffered from amblyopia as a child, which resulted in decreased vision of her left eye. She had one younger sister, Mijanou Bardot.

Bardot's childhood was prosperous; she lived in her family's nine-bedroom apartment at 1 Rue de la Pompe, in the luxurious 16th arrondissement; however, she recalled feeling resentful in her early years. Her father demanded that she follow strict behavioral standards, including good table manners, and wear appropriate clothes. Her mother was highly selective in choosing companions for her, so Bardot had very few childhood friends.

During her childhood, she, her sister, and their parents spent weekends on her paternal grandparents' property, at 17 rue du Général Leclerc in Louveciennes, with a chalet imported from Norway for Exposition Universelle (1889) and large gardens, where she later celebrated her marriage to Jacques Charrier.

Bardot recalled a personal traumatic incident when she and her sister broke their parents' favourite vase while they were playing in the house. The sisters' father whipped both of them 20 times and subsequently treated the two like "strangers", demanding that they address their parents by the formal second-person pronoun vous, used in French when speaking to unfamiliar or higher-status persons outside the immediate family. The incident led to Bardot decisively resenting her parents and to her future rebellious lifestyle.

During World War II, when Paris was occupied by Nazi Germany, Bardot spent more time at home due to increasingly strict civilian surveillance. She became engrossed in dancing to records, which her mother saw as a potential for a ballet career. Bardot was admitted at the age of seven to the private school Cours Hattemer. She went to school three days a week, which gave her ample time to take dance lessons at a local studio under her mother's arrangements. In 1949, Bardot was accepted at the Conservatoire de Paris. She attended ballet classes held by Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev for three years. She also studied at the Institut de la Tour, a private Catholic high school near her home.

Career

Beginnings: 1949–1955

Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, the director of the magazines Elle and Le Jardin des Modes, hired Bardot in 1949 as a "junior" fashion model. On 8 March 1950, 15-year-old Bardot appeared on the cover of Elle, which brought her an acting offer for the film Les Lauriers sont coupés from director Marc Allégret. Her parents opposed her becoming an actress, but her grandfather was supportive, saying that "If this little girl is to become a whore, cinema will not be the cause."

At the audition, Bardot met Roger Vadim, who later notified her that she did not get the role. They subsequently fell in love. Her parents fiercely opposed their relationship; her father announced to her one evening that she would continue her education in England and that he had bought her a train ticket for the following day. Bardot reacted by putting her head into an oven with open fire; her parents stopped her and ultimately accepted the relationship, on condition that she marry Vadim at the age of 18.

When Bardot was 15 years old, she began modeling. She appeared on the cover of Elle in 1950 and 1952, which both brought acting roles, the first, released in 1952, a small part in the comedy film Crazy for Love, directed by Jean Boyer and starring Bourvil. She was paid 200,000 francs (about US$575 in 1952) for the small role portraying a cousin of the main character. Bardot had her second film role in Manina, the Girl in the Bikini (1952), directed by Willy Rozier. She also had roles in the 1953 films, The Long Teeth and His Father's Portrait. Bardot had a small role in a Hollywood-financed film being shot in Paris in 1953, Act of Love, starring Kirk Douglas. She received media attention when she attended the Cannes Film Festival in April 1953.

Bardot had a leading role in 1954 in an Italian melodrama, Concert of Intrigue, and in a French adventure film, Caroline and the Rebels. She had a good part as a flirtatious student in 1955's School for Love, opposite Jean Marais, for director Marc Allégret. Bardot played her first sizable English-language role in 1955 in Doctor at Sea as the love interest of Dirk Bogarde. The film was the third most popular movie in Britain that year. Bardot had a small role in The Grand Maneuver (1955) for director René Clair, supporting Gérard Philipe and Michèle Morgan. Her part was bigger in The Light Across the Street (1956) for director Georges Lacombe. She had another in the Hollywood film Helen of Troy, playing Helen's handmaiden. For the Italian movie Nero's Weekend (1956), brunette Bardot was asked by the director to appear as a blonde. She dyed her hair rather than wear a wig; she was so pleased with the results that she decided to retain the color.

Rise to stardom: 1956–1962

Bardot then appeared in four movies that made her a star. First was a musical, Naughty Girl (1956), where Bardot played a troublesome school girl. Directed by Michel Boisrond and co-written by Roger Vadim, it was also the first time Bardot appeared alongside Alain Delon in a sketch film where they shared a segment. The film was a major success and became the 12th most popular film of the year in France.

It was followed by a comedy, Plucking the Daisy (1956), also written by Vadim. This was succeeded by The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful (1956) with Louis Jourdan. Finally, there was the melodrama And God Created Woman (1956). The movie marks Vadim's debut as director, with Bardot starring opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant and Curt Jurgens. The film, about an immoral teenager in an otherwise respectable small-town setting, was an even larger success, not just in France but also around the world, listed among the ten most popular films in Great Britain in 1957.

In the United States, the film was the highest-grossing foreign film ever released, by grossing $12 million (earning $4 million), which author Peter Lev describes as "an astonishing amount for a foreign film at that time". It turned Bardot into an international star. From at least 1956, she was hailed as the "sex kitten". The film scandalized the United States and some theater managers were even arrested just for screening it. Paul O'Neil of Life (June 1958) in describing Bardot's international popularity, writes: