On December 28, 2025, Brigitte Bardot passed away at the age of 91.
The French actress, singer, and activist was born on September 28, 1934, in Paris and became one of the defining icons of the 20th century. Worldwide fame came with the film «And God Created Woman (1956)», which turned Bardot into a symbol of the sexual revolution and a new image of womanhood — free, independent, and unconstrained by traditional morality.
In the film, Bardot played a young woman strolling around in a bikini and seducing men in a respectable small town. While France had more or less accepted the bikini by then, in 1950s America it was still considered «borderline indecent».
Her story is a striking example of how ideas about what is acceptable have shifted over the past 70 years.
In 1973, at the height of her fame, Bardot completely withdrew from cinema and devoted herself to animal rights activism.
Bardot first arrived in the United States exactly 70 years ago, in December 1965, during the promotional tour for «Viva Maria!», and stayed at The Plaza (the same one later made famous by Home Alone).
Thanks to photographer Ed Clarity, we have several photographs of Brigitte in Central Park (the park has changed dramatically in 70 years — the view toward the southeast, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street).
From New York, the global star traveled on to Los Angeles. One photo shows her on the Hollywood Hills at a restaurant that is still operating today — Yamashiro Hollywood (photo by Patrice Habans).
Bardot later returned to America during her honeymoon with her new husband, Gunter Sachs von Opel. His mother, Eleonore, was the daughter of Wilhelm von Opel, the founder of the Opel automobile company.
An interesting detail: after the death of his first wife, Sachs courted Bardot in a way that has since become almost legendary. He flew a helicopter over her villa on the French Riviera and showered it with hundreds of roses from the air.
They married on July 14, 1966, in Las Vegas, but the marriage was short-lived — the couple divorced in 1969. They had no children. In one photograph, the couple is seen in front of an airplane after arriving by private jet from Vegas to Los Angeles, at Van Nuys Airport.
The final image in this post shows Bardot celebrating her 50th birthday at a New York nightclub (photo by David Lefranc).
