The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announced on Sunday the death of the icon of 1950s femininity, film actress, singer, muse and inspiration to great artists, but also an animal rights advocate.

She was undoubtedly one of the greatest French and global stars, an icon of a generation, a symbol in her own way of the emancipation of women and sexual freedom: Brigitte Bardot passed away on Sunday, December 28, 2025, at the age of 91, her Foundation announced to AFP.

Brigitte Bardot was hospitalized in Toulon in November and underwent surgery. She was also hospitalized in January 2023 due to respiratory failure. An actress and singer known by her initials, "BB" was part of France's cultural heritage, but she also dedicated a large part of her life to animal rights.

From the moment she appeared on the film scene, she revolutionized attitudes. Curves to die for, a sensual yet innocent way of moving… She would be the most beautiful woman in the world. Brigitte Bardot, the young woman from a privileged background in Paris, dreamed, like many little girls, of a career as a dancer. Very quickly, she became a model and landed her first role in * Le Trou normand\* alongside Bourvil.

From then on, she was a force to be reckoned with, and much to her parents' dismay, Roger Vadim, then a young film assistant, became her mentor. A year later, at the Cannes Film Festival, the young actress caused a sensation on the Croisette, driving the photographers wild.

Bardot was already on par with the stars of the time. Kirk Douglas, captivated, tried to lure her to the United States. Behind the scenes, Vadim continued to mold her and finally obtained the right to marry her in 1952. She had just turned 18.

And God Created Woman , the first film directed by her husband. She was 22 years old, and it was primarily in the United States that the film caused a scandal. "And God created Bardot," the Americans say. France then embraced the myth of the young Frenchwoman. A global star was born.

It's 1958, and Bardot, now BB, is the embodiment of the free woman. A fashion phenomenon. An entire generation dresses, does their makeup, and styles their hair like her. Everything she touches turns to gold. And it's opposite Jean Gabin in the film " En cas de malheur" (In Case of Emergency ) that she will reveal her acting talents.

In 1960, she starred in her favorite film, La Vérité , directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, a story of a crime of passion. It was then her foray into the New Wave, with Jean-Luc Godard and Michel Piccoli, that would leave a lasting impression on film buffs. This was the legendary Contempt at the Villa Malaparte in Capri, and her famous line: "Can you see my backside in the mirror? -Yes. -Do you think my buttocks are pretty? -Yes… very."

Men came and went in Bardot's life : Vadim, Trintignant, Charrier. Her second marriage to the latter ( who died in September 2025 ) was short-lived, but she had a son with him, Nicolas, who was raised by his father. Bardot became the symbol of all French people as Marianne, before finding herself, towards the end of the 1960s, a new Pygmalion in Serge Gainsbourg.

The hysterical crowd at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival

On the occasion of the release of Louis Malle's Viva Maria , starring Jeanne Moreau, she said of her: "Watching her walk is like listening to great music." A second marriage followed, this time to Gunter Sachs. The couple faced the hysterical crowds at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. Brigitte Bardot could no longer bear the public life.

A few unlikely films followed: Les Novices with Annie Girardot, Les Pétroleuses with Claudia Cardinale, and Shalaco with Sean Connery. From this period emerged only one charming comedy by Michel Deville, L'Ours et la Poupée (The Bear and the Doll) , where she finally played a tender character opposite Jean-Pierre Cassel. She finally worked under the direction of Nina Campanez and deflowered Francis Huster's character. When the film was released in 1973, no one yet knew it would be her last. She was 39 years old and wanted a change of pace.

The myth of the most beautiful woman in the world will continue to resonate in the annals of cinema. But it is elsewhere that she will play the role closest to her heart. It is now at La Madrague, in Saint-Tropez, surrounded by her dogs, that Brigitte Bardot is launching her new crusades for animal rights.

In 1977, she denounced the slaughter of baby seals. For the public, a new Bardot had just been born. A five-day trek across the Canadian polar ice caps led to a ban on the seal fur trade. But the media pressure was too intense, and BB was not yet taken seriously.

From the free woman to the conservative woman

Nine years later, she was selling personal belongings, jewelry, and memorabilia from her former profession. Three million francs were raised to fund her foundation and allow her to dedicate herself more fully to the protection of all oppressed animals. She also bequeathed her property to the foundation. From the abandonment of pets to animal experimentation, and even the hunting of turtledoves, she was involved in every fight. But, little by little, the free-spirited young woman of the 1950s gave way to an increasingly conservative, even reactionary, woman.

By marrying Bernard d'Ormale, an industrialist with ties to the National Front, she demonstrated her affinity for Jean-Marie Le Pen's ideas. The publication of her memoirs was surprising due to her aggressive, even racist, positions. This is also why she was convicted in 2003, following her statements about the slaughter of sheep during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

“Freedom is being yourself, even when it’s unsettling,” proclaims Brigitte Bardot in the epigraph to her book, * Mon BBcédaire\ (Fayard Publishers) , released on October 1, 2025, in which she shares her views on the world. From the letter A for abandonment to the letter Z for zoo, Bardot writes a few lines on chosen words and the names of places or people she has known. In eroticism, the actress sees “games of love where everything is permitted with imagination, unsettling perversity, and amorous mischief.” The animal rights activist believes that France has “become dull, sad, submissive, sick, damaged, ravaged, ordinary, vulgar…” The right wing is the “ only urgent remedy for France’s agony,”* adds the woman who has openly acknowledged her affinity with Marine Le Pen (National Rally).

As an actress, animal rights activist, and citizen, Bardot always spoke with the same freedom, even at the risk of causing a scandal. That's what we'll remember about her life.