Brigitte Bardot, French actor and animal rights activist, dies at 91

Screen siren Brigitte Bardot, whose portrayals of free-spirited ingenues made her an international sex symbol and the pride of France, and who turned her back on movie stardom in 1973 to become an animal rights activist, has died, according to French media and The Associated Press

Screen siren Brigitte Bardot, whose portrayals of free-spirited ingenues made her an international sex symbol and the pride of France, and who turned her back on movie stardom in 1973 to become an animal rights activist, has died, according to French media and The Associated Press.

She was 91.

Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died at her home in southern France. He did not provide a cause of death, and said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month after a period of ill health.

Brigitte Bardot in 1963.John Kisch Archive / Getty Images fileLeading tributes, French President Emmanuel Macron said Bardot “embodied a life of freedom” and lived a “French existence.” Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally party, which Bardot publicly supported in her later years, referred to her as a “passionate patriot” who represented “an entire era of French history.”

Bardot’s foundation paid tribute to her legacy on animal rights, from traveling to Arctic ice floes to help baby seals, to lobbying for animal welfare legislation and securing convictions for perpetrators of animal abuse.