Tributes were immediately paid to the star who was known as \u201cBB\u201d in her home country, with President Emmanuel Macron calling her a \u201clegend\u201d of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
An AFP reporter in Saint-Tropez saw a hearse enter then leave her property, as a handful of fans came to lay bunches of flowers near a police car that was blocking the road to her home.<\/p>\n
Julia Gangotena, 36, was among the few to have made it up to Bardot\u2019s blue front gate, where she left some white roses near a Christmas wreath and a dog\u2019s bowl full of water, she said, showing AFP a picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a woman who lived as much in the thronging crowd as she did alone \u2013 profoundly alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Born on September 28, 1934, in Paris, Bardot was raised in a well-off traditional Catholic household.<\/p>\n
She was married four times and had one child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, with her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier.<\/p>\n
Bardot became a global star after appearing in And God Created Woman in 1956, and went on to appear in about 50 more movies before giving up acting in 1973.<\/p>\n
She turned her back on celebrity to look after abandoned animals, saying she was \u201csick of being beautiful every day\u201d.<\/p>\n
Far-right leanings <\/p>\n
\u201cBrigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom,\u201d Macron wrote on X.<\/p>\n
His tribute, though, made no reference to Bardot\u2019s alignment with far-right views in her post-cinema years, which alienated many of her fans.<\/p>\n
French film star Brigitte Bardot raises her glass at a press conference for Jean-Luc Godard’s latest film, ‘Le Mepris’ (‘Contempt’). Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bardot was convicted five times for hate speech, mostly about Muslims, but also the inhabitants of the French island of Reunion whom she described as \u201csavages\u201d.<\/p>\n
A supporter of far-right politician Marine Le Pen, Bardot declared herself \u201cagainst the Islamisation of France\u201d in a 2003 book, which argued that \u201cour ancestors, our grandfathers, our fathers have for centuries given their lives to push out successive invaders\u201d.<\/p>\n
The head of Le Pen\u2019s far-right National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, called Bardot an \u201cardent patriot\u201d.<\/p>\n
Le Pen, who has been barred from public office pending an appeal trial in January, called her \u201cincredibly French: free, untamable, whole\u201d.<\/p>\n
In her final book, Mon BBcedaire (My BB Alphabet), published weeks before her death, Bardot fired barbs at what she described as a \u201cdull, sad, submissive\u201d France and at her home town of Saint-Tropez, now packed with the wealthy tourists she helped attract.<\/p>\n
The book also contained derogatory remarks about gay and transgender people.<\/p>\n
Saint-Tropez retreat <\/p>\n
After retiring from cinema, Bardot withdrew to her home in the Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez where she devoted herself to fighting for animals.<\/p>\n
Her calling apparently came when she encountered a goat on the set of her final film, The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot. To save it from being killed, she bought the animal and kept it in her hotel room.<\/p>\n
Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Charrier and their 3-day-old son Nicolas. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bardot went on to found the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in 1986, which now has 70,000 donors and around 300 employees, according to its website.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the first chapter of my life,\u201d she told AFP in a 2024 interview before her 90th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gave me fame, and that fame allows me to protect animals \u2013 the only cause that truly matters to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that she lived in \u201csilent solitude\u201d in La Madrague, surrounded by nature and content to be \u201cfleeing humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the subject of death, she warned that she wanted to avoid the presence of \u201ca crowd of idiots\u201d at her funeral and wished for a simple wooden cross above her grave, in her garden \u2013 the same as for her animals.<\/p>\n
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