French actress Brigitte Bardot dead at 91

"French movie actress Brigitte Bardot, whose sexy 1950s and '60s look defined beauty for generations of men and women and who later became a world-renowned animal rights activist, has died at age 91. Her foundation shared the news Sunday with an announcement on their website and a statement to French press. It did not specify when she died or her cause of death. However, Bardot has been hospitalized in October with a serious illness."

"Bardot first came to fame when she was featured on the cover of Elle in 1950. She was 15. It was be the first of hundreds of times she graced the front of a fashion magazine. Movie director Roger Vadim discovered her through those pictures, and he and Bardot married in 1952, when she was around 18 years old. Bardot soon began appearing in movies, and starred in Vadim's 1956 hit And God Created Woman, a drama that featured her nude, cementing Bardot's sex kitten image."

"Brigitte Bardot was one of the first women to be really modern and treat men like love objects, buying them and discarding them. I like that, said Andy Warhol, who did a series of screen prints of the screen siren in 1974. Her fame paralleled that of fellow Warhol subject Marilyn Monroe, though Bardot's movies weren't as well-known to American audiences."

Brigitte Bardot died at age 91. Her foundation announced the death on its website and to the French press without specifying time or cause. Bardot had been hospitalized in October with a serious illness. Bardot first appeared on the cover of Elle in 1950 at age 15 and became a prolific fashion and film figure. Director Roger Vadim discovered her and married her in 1952; she starred in his 1956 film And God Created Woman, which featured her nude and cemented her sex kitten image. She adopted a blonde look after an Italian director's request and married then divorced Roger Vadim, Jacques Charrier, and Gunter Sachs. Andy Warhol created prints of Bardot and compared her fame to Marilyn Monroe; her film La Verite received award recognition.

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