Brigitte Bardot Photofest Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Brigitte Bardot, the enchanting French starlet with the marvelous pout who became a carefree icon of sexuality in the 1950s and '60s after her liberated performance in the scandalous And God Created Woman, has died. She was 91. Bardot died Sunday at her home in southern France, according to a representative from animal protection charity The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, who confirmed her death to The Associated Press. No cause or time of death was specified. She was reportedly hospitalized in November. French President Emmanuel Macron was among the immediate mourners, calling Bardot "a legend of the century." He said on social media: "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." Related Stories Movies Bahram Beyzaie, Iranian Director of Venice Award-Winning 'Bashu, the Little Stranger,' Dies at 87 Music Perry Bamonte, Guitarist and Keyboardist for The Cure, Dies at 65 Bardot was one of the most famous French actresses of her time, celebrated for her beauty and fiery performances in films like Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Truth (1960) and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (1963). With an 18-inch waist and long, tousled hair, Bardot was one of the first movie stars to appear au naturel. She popularized the bikini in an era of one-piece modesty and made a habit of bedazzling photographers at the Cannes Film Festival. And on Playboy's list of the "100 Sexiest Stars of the Century," published in 1999, she placed fourth, trailing only Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Raquel Welch. Bardot also recorded three breathy solo albums in the '60s, singing "as if she was on the verge of bursting out into knowing giggles," one reviewer wrote. At the time of its release in staid 1956, And God Created Woman, directed by Roger Vadim - the first of her four husbands - pushed the boundaries of sex on the big screen. It was banned by the Vatican, and French censors insisted on cuts before allowing it to be shown in theaters at home. The film begins with Bardot, then 22 and playing a restless orphan living in Saint-Tropez, lying unclothed on her stomach. Three men fall under her spell during the film, which also includes scenes of her undressing and a scorching sequence that has her dancing barefoot and drunk to calypso music. And God Created Woman had a major impact on the liberated screen romances of the next decade, including those made by the French New Wave. Wrote Francois Truffaut: "I thank Vadim for having made this young woman repeat, in front of the lens, everyday gestures - trivial gestures like playing with her sandal, or less trivial ones like, yes indeed, making love in broad daylight." And God Created Woman was pilloried by French critics but gathered support in the U.S. and Great Britain, where it became a sensation. Bardot became the face (and body) of cinema in her country, and Time magazine called her the "Countess of Come-Hither." Known by the acronym "B.B." in her homeland, Bardot had her every movement tracked by paparazzi and her every liaison emblazoned on the covers of tabloids. When she tried to commit suicide in 1960 after her torrid affair with actor Sami Frey was discovered by her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier, scores of photographers flocked to the scene, blocking the road as an ambulance rushed a dying Bardot - who had slit her wrists - to a hospital in Nice. "I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated," Bardot once said. "What happened to me was inhuman." While shooting the 1973 sex comedy The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot, directed by Nina Companeez, she decided to give up acting. "Everything felt ridiculous, superfluous, absurd and useless," she recalled in her 1996 autobiography, Initiales B.B. Speaking to a journalist while on location, she announced: "I'm done with movies. It's over - this film is the last one. I'm sick of it." In her memoirs, she wrote, "It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders." She was 39. Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born in Paris on Sept. 28, 1934. The daughter of an engineer, she was raised in a cultured bourgeois household in the affluent 16th arrondissement and studied ballet at the Conservatoire de Paris. She was scouted by a family friend to model for Elle magazine, whose cover she graced in 1950 at age 15. Director Marc Allegret, who had discovered actress Simone Simon, recruited her for the movies, and she made her film debut in 1952's Le trou normand (Crazy for Love), helmed by Jean Boyer. She also starred as a lighthouse keeper's daughter in Will