Current:Home > StocksJane Birkin, actor, singer and fashion icon, dies at 76-LoTradeCoin
Jane Birkin, actor, singer and fashion icon, dies at 76
View Date:2024-12-23 19:45:08
Actor and singer Jane Birkin, who made France her home and charmed the country with her English grace, natural style and social activism, has died at age 76.
The London-born star and fashion icon was known for her musical and romantic relationship with French singer Serge Gainsbourg. Their songs notably included the steamy "Je t'aime moi non plus" ("I Love You, Me Neither"). Birkin's ethereal, British-accented singing voice interlaced with his gruff baritone in the 1969 duet that helped make her famous and was forbidden in Italy after being denounced in the Vatican newspaper.
The style Birkin displayed in the 1960s and early 1970s — long hair with bangs, jeans paired with white tops, knit mini dresses and basket bags — still epitomizes the height of French chic for many women around the world.
Birkin was also synonymous with a Hermes bag that bore her name. Created by the Paris fashion house in 1984 in her honor, the Birkin bag became one of the world's most exclusive luxury items, with a stratospheric price tag and years-long waiting list to buy it.
In a 2018 interview with "CBS Sunday Morning," Birkin joked that the bag might be what she's best known for.
"When I went to America, I don't know in what interview, they said, 'You mean Birkin, like the bag?' I said, 'Well, now, the bag is going to sing!' I thought, 'Oh gosh, on my obituary, it will say, 'Like the bag' or something,'" Birkin said to senior culture and senior national correspondent for CBS News Anthony Mason.
"It's so funny that, after all this, you might be known for a bag," Mason said.
"I might. Well, could be worse," Birkin said.
In her adopted France, Birkin was also celebrated for her political activism and campaigning for Amnesty International, Myanmar's pro-democracy movement, the fight against AIDS and other causes.
"You can always do something," Birkin said in 2001, drumming up support for an Amnesty campaign against torture. "You can say, 'I am not OK with that.'"
She joined five monks on a march through the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 to demand that Myanmar let foreign aid workers into the country to help cyclone victims.
In 2022, she joined other screen and music stars in France in chopping off locks of their hair in support of protesters in Iran. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Birkin's daughter with Gainsbourg and also an actor in her own right, cut off a snippet of her mother's hair for the "HairForFreedom" campaign as Iran was engulfed by anti-government protests.
French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Birkin as a "complete artist," noting that her soft voice went hand-in-hand with her "ardent" activism.
"Jane Birkin was a French icon because she was the incarnation of freedom, sang the most beautiful words of our language," he tweeted.
French media reported that Birkin was found dead at her Paris home. The French Culture Ministry tweeted that Birkin died Sunday. It hailed her as a "timeless Francophone icon."
Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak called Birkin "the most French British person" and "the emblem for a whole epoch who never went out of fashion."
Outside Birkin's home on Paris' Left Bank, fans mourned her death.
"She was a poet, a singer, an artist," said Marie-Jo Bonnet. "She gave the best of herself and that's marvelous."
Birkin's early movie credits included "Blow-Up" in 1966, credited with helping introduce French audiences to her "Swinging Sixties" style and beauty.
Birkin and Gainsbourg met two years later. She remained his muse even after the couple separated in 1980.
She also had a daughter, Kate, with James Bond composer John Barry. Kate Barry died in 2013 at age 46. Birkin had her third daughter, singer and model Lou Doillon, with French director Jacques Doillon.
Birkin suffered from health issues in recent years that kept her from performing and her public appearances became sparse.
French broadcaster BFMTV said Birkin suffered a mild stroke in 2021, forcing her to cancel shows that year. She canceled her shows again in March due to a broken shoulder blade.
A return to performing was put off in May, with the singer saying she needed a bit more time and promising her fans she would see them again come the fall.
Despite her decades-long screen and music career, Birkin suspected that, for some people, the bag named after her might be her most famous legacy.
The fashion accessory was born of a fortuitous encounter on a London-bound flight in the 1980s with the then-head of Hermes, Jean-Louis Dumas. Birkin recounted in subsequent interviews that they got talking after she spilled some of her things on the cabin floor. She asked Dumas why Hermes didn't make a bigger handbag and sketched out on an airplane vomit sack the sort of bag that she'd like.
Dumas then had an example made for her and, flattered, she said yes when Hermes asked whether it could commercialize the bag in her name.
- In:
- Paris
- Myanmar
- Emmanuel Macron
- France
- Entertainment
veryGood! (61485)
Related
- Brian Austin Green Shares Message to Sharna Burgess Amid Ex Megan Fox's Baby News
- FDA approves first cell therapy to treat aggressive forms of melanoma
- Congress has ignored gun violence. I hope they can't ignore the voices of the victims.
- Who are the past winners of the NBA Slam Dunk contest?
- Report: Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence could miss rest of season with shoulder injury
- Bears great Steve McMichael contracts another infection, undergoes blood transfusion, family says
- Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Star Kyle Richards Influenced Me To Buy These 53 Products
- You Won't Believe These Celebrity Look-Alikes Aren't Actually Related
- Giuliani’s lawyers after $148M defamation judgment seek to withdraw from his case
- After news of Alexei Navalny's death, it's impossible not to think of Brittney Griner
Ranking
- Apologetic rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine gets 45 days in prison for probation violations
- 'The least affordable housing market in recent memory': Why now is a great time to rent
- Internal affairs inquiry offers details of DUI investigation into off-duty Nevada officer
- 4.7 magnitude earthquake outside of small Texas city among several recently in area
- Disney x Lululemon Limited-Edition Collection: Shop Before It Sells Out
- Officer shot and suspect critically wounded in exchange of gunfire in Pennsylvania, authorities say
- Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo suspended two games for PED violation, per report
- Will NFL players participate in first Olympics flag football event in 2028?
Recommendation
-
Research reveals China has built prototype nuclear reactor to power aircraft carrier
-
The Murderous Mindf--k at the Heart of Lover, Stalker, Killer
-
Snoop Dogg mourns death of younger brother Bing Worthington: 'You always made us laugh'
-
Snoop Dogg mourns death of younger brother Bing Worthington: 'You always made us laugh'
-
Jared Goff stats: Lions QB throws career-high 5 INTs in SNF win over Texans
-
NBA All-Star Celebrity Game 2024: Cowboys' Micah Parsons named MVP after 37-point performance
-
Winter Beauty Hack- Get $20 off Isle of Paradise Self-Tanning Drops and Enjoy a Summer Glow All Year Long
-
Tiger Woods withdraws from Genesis Invitational in second round because of illness