1. Et Dieu créa Bardot By Brigitte

2. Brigitte Bardot Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on September 28, 1934 in Paris, France to Louis, nicknamed ‘Pilou’ and Anne-Marie, nicknamed ‘Toty’ Bardot. Brigitte is the oldest of two girls. She has a sister named Marie-Jeanne (more commonly known as ‘Mijanou’) who was born in 1938.

3. Younger Years 1938-1950 At the age of four, Toty Bardot enrolled Brigitte into ballet. It would become one of the greatest joys of her life and the main focus of her childhood and the beginning of her teenage years. Brigitte became one of the best dancers in her class and in 1947 was accepted into the Conservatoire de Paris, a college of music and dance, where she studied for three years.

5. Brigitte meets Roger Vadim In 1949, Brigitte modeled for a fashion magazine called Jardin des Modes and the next year, she appeared on the March 1950 cover of Elle. Roger Vadim, a young film director, noticed her on the cover and showed it to a fellow director and screenwriter, who offered Bardot an opportunity to audition for a role in an upcoming movie. Although she got the role, the film was cancelled. However, it got the idea into her head of becoming an actress. Vadim would soon become the biggest influence on her life and career.

6. 1952-1956 Brigitte and Vadim married on December 21. She was 18 and he was 25. In 1952, Bardot debuted in her first film, titled Le Trou normand (Crazy For Love). It would rake in a few million dollars but left Bardot still somewhat of an unknown actress. Brigitte appeared in seventeen films between the years of 1952 and 1956. Little did she know, the year of 1956 would be a groundbreaking and life changing one for her.

8. Et Dieu créa la Femme Both Bardot and Vadim were growing tired of Brigitte being continuously overlooked. She held great potential in the film world. What she needed was a push, and with this, Vadim sparked an interesting idea- one that would change both of their lives. He showcased her in Et Dieu… créa la Femme (And God Created Woman), which is widely recognized as the film that launched Bardot into the public spotlight and made her an overnight sensation.

10. 1957- 1960 In 1957, not long after the international success of And God Created Woman, Brigitte and Roger Vadim got divorced. However, they remained great friends and he even went on to direct her in several other films through the late sixties. In 1959, on the set of Babette Goes to War, Brigitte met a man named Jacques Charrier who was playing alongside her in the film. They got married in the same year. The press took great interest into the marriage of this gorgeous couple, while things behind the scenes in their marriage almost immediately seemed to take a turn for the worst, mainly due to Brigitte’s growing bad attitude toward fame. On January 11, 1960, Bardot gave birth to her only child, Nicolas Charrier.

12. 1961-1973 Between the years of 1961 and 1973, Brigitte would produce twenty more films. One of her biggest, Le Mépris (Contempt) which was directed by Jean-Luc Godard, was released in 1963. Today, it is generally regarded as a masterpiece in world cinema. In 1966, Brigitte married for the third time to a German millionaire playboy named Gunter Sachs. The marriage only lasted three months. In 1973, Brigitte announced her departure from acting.

14. Animal Activism Brigitte celebrated her fortieth birthday in 1974. She had recently retired from her acting career. Soon after, she made the decision to dedicate the rest of her life to her love of animals. She established the Foundation for the Protection of Distressed Animals in the mid-70’s and in 1986, she founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She raised three million francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off many of her personal belongings.

15. Her hard work and efforts as an animal rights activist has led to the Council of Europe banning seal fur importation. Also, the French government has banned ivory importation. She has also fought against things such as the transport and slaughter of horses, industrial animal farms, hunting, bullfights, and the wearing of fur. On her dedication to animals: “It’s what I dreamed of. It’s what I always wanted.”

17. Although she is no longer in the fame spotlight, her beauty continues to inspire and influence fashion, art, and film.

18. Works Cited Beauvoir, Simone De. Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome. New York: Arno, 1972. Print. Carpozi, George. The Brigitte Bardot Story. New York: Belmont, 1961. Print. Roberts, Glenys. Bardot. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1984. Print. Robinson, Jeffrey. Bardot: An Intimate Portrait. New York: D.I. Fine, 1994. Print. Singer, Barnett. Brigitte Bardot: A Biography. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006. Print.