French Celebrities Bio | Brigitte Bardot

In the history of celebrity and all the lunacy that goes with it, few individuals can have lead such a life of dizzy contrasts and controversy as Brigitte Bardot.
From the gorgeous starlet frolicking for the press at Cannes to the outspoken animal rights activist and commentator in later life, the juxtaposition of her public persona could not be more striking. Hers has been an extraordinary life.

Born Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot on 28 September 1934 into a middle class, Catholic family, she was a keen young dancer and in 1947 she gained entry into the exclusive Conservatoire in Paris to train in ballet.

A couple of years later, her pouting good looks earned her the occasional modeling job, including for the fashion title Jardin des Modes, but real the career-starter came in 1949 when she made the cover of Elle.


This was a vital moment, as the young film director Roger Vadim spotted her and told a director acquaintance about her.

Young Brigitte auditioned for a film and got the lead but it was never made. However, her meeting with Vadim was to have a big effect on her life and career.

Bardot’s first released film was in 1952’s Le Trou Normand and in the next four years she appeared in an astonishing 17 movies.

The media spotlight on her bikini-clad appearance at Cannes in 1953 catapulted her into the public eye.

Yet Vadim, whom she had in the meantime married, wanted her to do more than lightweight romantic roles, so he cast her alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant in And God Created Woman (1956), which became a major international hit.
Bardot divorced Vadim in 1957 and married actor Jacques Charrier in 1959 – they had her only child, a son called Nicolas – but their marriage was under strain from strifling press and public interest.

Bardot at this point moved to the relative seclusion of her home in St-Tropez and appeared in several films alongside big names before announcing her retirement from acting in 1973. She did, however, appear in musical shows and recordings – she was the original singer on Serge Gainsbourg’s saucy number ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’ – but requested that the song never be released. Gainsbourg re-recorded the duet with Jane Birkin. Bardot’s original is now available for download.

The second of Bardot’s life stories began in the 1980s when she decided to use her fame to highlight the plight of suffering animals. Increasingly politicized, she created a foundation by selling off personal belongings and became a vegetarian. She has been an outspoken opponent of horsemeat consumption, the killing of dolphins in the Faroe Islands and seal hunting in Canada, and has got involved in the unlikeliest of animal rights issues, including the care for Bucharest’s stray dogs.

Politically, it is alleged that Bardot has always allied herself to the right – her current husband is former adviser for the Front National, though she is not a known sympathizer, and she has added lively comment to topical debates on subjects such as immigration, homosexuality, modern art and Sarah Palin.

So at the age of 76, this former Marianne and iconic beauty is still stirring things up, thought this time with her opinions and not her plunging neckline.


Friday, 16th, September by Katharine Barrau