French actress, singer and model Brigitte Bardot has died at the age of 91, BFMTV reported, citing a statement by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.
In her youth, Bardot studied classical ballet, but in the early 1950s began a film career. She achieved worldwide fame after starring in And God Created Woman (1956), which turned her into an international star and a symbol of female freedom and sexual emancipation. Over two decades in show business, she appeared in nearly fifty films, recorded around 80 songs and received critical acclaim for her roles in The Truth, Contempt and Viva Maria!.
In 1970, Bardot became the first model for the bust of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. In 1973, she permanently ended her acting career, citing fatigue from public life and disillusionment with cinema.
From the early 1970s, Bardot devoted herself to animal protection and in 1986 founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.
In November 2018, Brigitte Bardot addressed an open letter to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, expressing deep concern about the situation of stray animals in Belarus. A representative of the foundation, Brigitte Oloua, travelled to Minsk in 2019 and 2020.
