French film icon Brigitte Bardot dies aged 91

Bruno Jacquelin, speaking on behalf of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, said that Bardot died at her home in southern France and had been taken to hospital last month.

A cause of death has not been provided and no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services.

The celebrated actor and singer became an international sex symbol before leaving the film industry to become an animal rights activist.

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Bardot shot to international fame with the 1956 film 'And God Created Woman', which was written and directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim.

She announced her retirement from acting in the early 1970s and became increasingly active politically.

Bardot had racked up a string of convictions for inciting racial hatred and she openly supported the far-right political group Front National.

She shared her rightwing politics and criticised at gay men and lesbians, schoolteachers and the so-called “Islamisation of French society”, resulting in a conviction for inciting racial hatred, in her 2003 book A Cry in the Silence.

Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to French actress Brigitte Bardot and described her as “a legend of the century”.

On X, he wrote: “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.

“A French existence, universal brilliance. She touched us. We mourn a legend of the century.”

Born in 1934 in Paris, Bardot grew up in a prosperous, traditional Catholic family but excelled enough as a dancer to be allowed to study ballet, gaining a place at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris.

She found work as a model, appearing on the cover of Elle in 1950 while still 15.

She was offered film roles as a result of her modelling. It was at one audition that she met Vadim, whom she would marry in 1952, after she turned 18.

Bardot was cast in small roles, with increasing prominence; she played Dirk Bogarde’s love interest in Doctor at Sea, a big hit in the UK in 1955.

But it was Vadim’s And God Created Woman, in which she played a teenager in Saint-Tropez, that turned her into an international icon.

The film was a huge hit in France, as well as internationally, and catapulted Bardot into the spotlight.

A statement released by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation says: "The Brigitte Bardot Foundation announces with immense sadness the death of its founder and president, Madame Brigitte Bardot, a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation."