French actress Brigitte Bardot. Biography
Brigitte Bardot is a French actress, singer, model and animal rights activist. Her film career ended when the actress was 38 years old, and during that time she starred in 48 films. Among the most famous works are "Private Life" (Vie privée, 1962) by Louis Mahl and "Contempt" (Le mépris, 1963) by Jean-Luc Godard.
Childhood and youth
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on September 28, 1934 in Paris in the family of Anne-Marie and Louis Bardot. The father of the future actress was a wealthy engineer who worked for the family company. The actress has a younger sister, Marie-Jeanne, who was called Mizhan in the family. As a child, the future actress believed that she was less beautiful than her sister.
Bardot studied at a Catholic school, and had governesses and nannies at home. One of them was Italian, thanks to her Brigitte Bardot learned Italian. Brigitte Bardot has been dancing since she was seven years old. From the age of 13 she studied at the Higher National Conservatory of Music and Dance, where she attended classes of the Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev.
The beginning of a creative journey
At the age of 14, Brigitte tried herself as a fashion model for the first time. Her mother arranged for her daughter to participate in a small fashion show. There, the girl was noticed by the editor of Jardin des Modes and invited her to shoot for the magazine's application. Soon, an offer was received for a photo shoot for Elle magazine. The mother of the future actress stipulated that her daughter's name would not appear in the issue, so only the initials "B.B." appeared under her pictures. A year later, the girl was invited again to become the face of the next issue of Elle. This was followed by an offer from director Marc Allegre to audition for his film.
Roger Vadim, assistant director of Marc Allegre, saw her photos. In the same year, Allegre invited Bardot to audition for the film "Laurels are Off". She got the role, but the production of the film was closed.
While auditioning for Allegra, Brigitte Bardot met her future husband, assistant director Roger Vadim. Although that project was never filmed, after successful auditions, the girl began to receive new offers for roles, and Vadim provided assistance to the promotion of the young actress.
At the age of 16, Brigitte Bardot, at the invitation of her family friend Andre Tarba, became a member of a ballet troupe that performed on board a cruise ship. The cruise lasted two weeks. Bardot later recalled it as the first great journey in her life, which gave her stage experience and the opportunity to escape from the strict care of her parents for a while.
Acting career
Brigitte Bardot's film debut was Jean Boyer's The Norman Hole, released in 1952.
In the same year, Bardot played the role of the lighthouse keeper's daughter Manina in the movie "Manina, the Girl in a Bikini" directed by Willy Rozier. After this job, the actress became in demand, and over the next four years, ten films with her participation were released. Among them is the French—American film "The Act of Love" starring Kirk Douglas, where Bardot had a cameo role.
According to Bardot, it was thanks to the American audience that she became famous in 1957 after starring in her husband's debut film "And God Created a Woman." The film was criticized by various religious organizations, and the film was banned from showing in several US states. As the actress said in her memoirs, at an exhibition in Brussels, a shot from the film "And God created a Woman" with her dancing became one of the exhibits demonstrating human vices. But after her father's complaints, the photo was removed from the exhibition. The scandal only fueled interest in the project and the female lead. The film was a box office success in the United States, and, according to the actress, she suddenly became "the most famous French woman overseas." At the same time, Bardot subsequently refused roles in Hollywood due to her reluctance to fly so far to shoot and her poor command of English.
In 1959, Brigitte Bardot starred in the comedy "Babette goes to War." This film became her first film to be released in the Soviet Union and received a nomination at the Moscow International Film Festival. Thanks to this tape, the high hairstyle of the main character, who was named "Babette", became fashionable. On the set of Babette Goes to War, Bardot met Jacques Charrier, who later became her second husband and the father of her child.
In 1960, Henri-Georges Clouzot's drama "The Truth" was released, in which Bardot played the role of a frivolous girl accused of murdering her former lover out of jealousy. The film was among the Oscar nominees in the Foreign language film category.
In 1963, the actress starred in the explicit drama "Contempt" by Jean-Luc Godard. According to the actress, the atmosphere of the film was alien to her, and she only followed the director's instructions on the set, without putting anything of herself into the role.
In 1968, Bardot starred in the western Shalako alongside British actor Sean Connery. During the filming, the actress had to pronounce the text in English, which, according to her, became a test for her.
In 1973, Brigitte Bardot announced that she would no longer act in films. During her film career, she has appeared in more than 50 films. At the same time, she herself stated that filming for her was not so much a vocation as a means to earn money. According to her, she did not seek to get used to the role or get out of the usual role. "I never got into the skins of my heroines, I pulled them on myself," she said.
Music
Brigitte Bardot has released several music albums. The first was a collection of pop songs by Brigitte Bardot in 1960. She sang songs in French, English, and Spanish.
In 1967, Bardot was offered a collaboration by composer and poet Serge Gainsbourg, who wrote several songs for the actress. Among their joint compositions, for which music videos were also shot, were Harley Davidson, Je t'aime... moi non plus and Bonnie and Clyde. The last song was released in the same year as the American film "Bonnie and Clyde" starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, which contributed to the success of the Bardot—Gainsbourg duo. Their joint album was eventually released without the song Je t'aime... moi non plus, as Bardo's husband Gunther Sachs demanded it under threat of divorce. Gainsbourg later recorded this song with Jane Birkin, and the version with Bardot was released only in the 1980s.
Animal protection
After completing her career as an actress, Brigitte Bardot announced her intention to devote herself to animal welfare. In her opinion, her fame should have helped to draw attention to this topic. In her book, she described how she came across examples of animal cruelty and picked up stray dogs from the street. In 1964, with the assistance of Bardot, France adopted a regulatory act prescribing the introduction of more humane methods of slaughtering animals in meat production.
In 1967, Bardot met for the first time with French President Charles de Gaulle. She campaigned against animal extermination and experimentation, hunting, and bullfighting.
Bardot has been tried several times for "inciting ethnic hatred" due to her statements criticizing religious ceremonies during which animals are killed, as well as the growing number of migrants in France. In 1997, she was fined 10,000 francs, in 2001 - 30,000 francs, in 2004 the fine was 5,000 euros, and in 2008 - 15,000 euros.
Brigitte Bardot has repeatedly criticized the presidents of France, saying that they are not taking enough measures to protect animal rights.
In 2013, Bardot announced that she would receive Russian citizenship and leave France if the French zoo administration did not reverse the decision to euthanize two sick elephants. In her opinion, Russian President Vladimir Putin has done more to protect animals than all French presidents. As a result, the elephants were not euthanized. Bardo later said that she was still very attracted to Russia, but she wasn't sure if the cold climate would benefit her.
Personal life
At the age of 15, Brigitte Bardot met Roger's assistant director Vadim (born Vadim Plemyannikov), who was six years her senior, at a screen test. A relationship began between them. Bordeaux's parents, upon learning about this, initially wanted to separate them and send the girl to study in England. However, then, as the actress wrote in her memoirs, they succumbed to her persuasions and left her in France, stipulating that she would marry Vadim only after coming of age. Bardo and Vadim celebrated their wedding on December 21, 1952.
On the set of Vadim's film "And God Created a Woman," Bardot fell in love with her partner on the set, Jean-Louis Trintignant. As the actress herself said, by that time their relationship with her husband had developed into a friendly one. In 1957, Vadim and Bardot divorced. The affair with Trintignant lasted only two years.
In 1959, Brigitte Bardot married Jacques Charrier, her partner in the film Babette Goes to War. Soon the couple had a son, Nicolas. After the divorce of Bardot and Charrier in 1962, the child remained with his father. The actress rarely spent time with her son and became close to him only after becoming a grandmother.
In 1966, Bardot married German millionaire Hunter Sachs in Las Vegas. Their marriage lasted only three years.
In 1992, Bardot married the politician and businessman Bernard d'Ormal. The couple got married in Norway, where the former actress came to visit her son.
In 2017, a bronze statue of Brigitte Bardot was installed in Saint-Tropez. There is also a monument to the actress in the Brazilian resort town of Buzios.
In 2023, the premiere of the series "Brigitte Bardot: the Art of Living" based on the biography of the actress took place at the Series Mania festival in Lille, France. The role of Bardot was played by debutante Julia de Nunes, and her first husband was played by Jean-Paul Belmando's grandson Victor Belmondo.
In October 2025, Nice-Matin reported that Brigitte Bardot had been in the hospital for three weeks and had undergone surgery "due to a serious illness." On October 23rd, Bardot announced on social media that she was fine and was not going to say goodbye. At the end of November, she was hospitalized again. Bardo passed away on December 28.
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