Jane Birkin, the English actor, singer and vogue muse adored by France, has died. She was 76.
The Related Press reported Birkin’s dying on Sunday, citing France’s Ministry of Tradition. She was discovered lifeless at her Paris house, in keeping with French media stories. No reason behind dying was given.
In recent times, Birkin skilled well being points that pressured her to reduce public performances and appearances. The veteran entertainer canceled a number of exhibits in 2021 and 2023 after struggling a light stroke and a damaged shoulder blade, respectively, in keeping with French broadcaster BFMTV.
She was purported to return to the stage in Might however opted to postpone her comeback till the autumn.
Born in London and worshiped in France, Birkin rose to prominence because the artistic and romantic accomplice of French musician Serge Gainsbourg. The previous couple was revered and reviled for his or her sultry duets, such because the 1969 hit “Je t’aime moi non plus” (I Love You, Me Neither).
Birkin, famed for her effortlessly stylish private model, was additionally recognized for uplifting the Hermès luxurious purse that bore her surname. The Paris vogue home launched the designer purse as an homage to the performer in 1984.
The stylish and astronomically costly Birkin bag has since carved a legacy of its personal — as a standing image famously flaunted by fashionistas and socialites, each actual and fictional. (The Kardashians and the girls of “Intercourse and the Metropolis,” to call a couple of.)
“On my obituary, it can say, ‘Just like the bag’ or one thing,” Birkin joked in a 2018 interview with CBS. “Effectively, it could possibly be worse.”
However Birkin’s affect stretched far past the bag. Her fringed coiffure, affinity for denim and signature pout had been thought of a distinctly French look coveted to today by individuals throughout the globe.
She additionally appeared in dozens of movies launched in each English and French. Her display credit included 1966’s “Blow-Up,” 1978’s “Dying on the Nile” and 1982’s “Evil Underneath the Solar.”
Jane Birkin at Rome’s night time membership Cabala 25 in 1972, throughout a celebration to launch her file “Black and White.”
(Gianni Foggia / Related Press)
In a tweet translated by Google, French President Emmanuel Macron fondly remembered Birkin as “a whole artist.”
“As a result of she embodied freedom, as a result of she sang probably the most lovely phrases of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon,” Macron wrote.
“Her voice was as candy as her engagements had been fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and pictures that can by no means go away us.”
Along with working as a singer and actor, Birkin was additionally an activist who campaigned for Amnesty Worldwide, advocated for Myanmar’s pro-democracy motion, raised consciousness in the course of the AIDS disaster and most lately voiced help for ladies’s rights in Iran.
Birkin is survived by her and Gainsbourg’s daughter, actor and musician Charlotte Gainsbourg, in addition to one other daughter, musician Lou Doillon, whom she shared with French director Jacques Doillon. Kate Barry — her daughter with James Bond composer John Barry — died in 2013 at age 46.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
