Brigitte Bardot, sex symbol then animal activist, dies at 91

Brigitte Bardot, the French actress who set the standard for a generation of female sex symbols in the 1960s and devoted her later life to animal rights, has died. She was 91.

Her death was announced Sunday in a statement by her foundation, saying Bardot had chosen to abandon “her prestigious movie career to dedicate her life and energy” to defend animal welfare. It didn’t provide further details on her death.

The archetype of beauty to millions of men, Bardot spawned an era of curvy, pouting, insouciant actresses with her role as a self-assured small-town sexpot in And God Created Woman (1956). Throughout the 1970s, she was the model for “Marianne,” the female incarnation of the French republic whose profile adorns stamps and coins.

But Bardot quit making movies at age 39, and she courted controversy with comments about marginalized members of society. 

A Paris court fined her €5,000 (about $6,100 at the time) in 2004 for expressing “disgust” with France’s tolerance of Muslim immigrants in her 2003 autobiography, A Cry in the Silence. The book also referred to gay people as “freaks” and said the unemployed don’t want to work.