Siren with a sharp tongue

'Unfairly' labelled as far-right, but took swipes at Muslims, gay people.

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GONE. French actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot holds one of 143 puppies seized by customs officers in Nice. She died on Sunday.

Film legend Brigitte Bardot in her later decades raised eyebrows calling far-right leader Marine Le Pen a modern “Joan of Arc”, but she always maintained she was merely doing what was best for animals.

Bardot, who died on Sunday aged 91, argued she was unfairly labelled as a supporter of the anti-immigration far-right after she made explosive remarks in the late '90s about Muslims slaughtering sheep.

"I never asked anyone to be racist and I don't think I fuel any racial hatred," she wrote in her 2018 book Larmes de Combat, translated into English under the title Tears of Battle.

But the Paris-born star of around 50 films, who walked away from cinema to defend animal rights, was repeatedly convicted for hate speech - mostly against members of the Islamic faith after migration from France's former colonies.