'I gave my youth and beauty to men, I give my wisdom and experience to animals...'

"I gave my youth and beauty to men," she said.

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"I give my wisdom and experience to animals."

HER breakthrough hit was called And God Created Woman, but Brigitte Bardot always strived to be the architect of her own life and career.

Thrust into the limelight by her own husband, director Roger Vadim, 20-year-old Brigitte inflamed the straitlaced censors of 1956 by dancing the mambo in a skirt slit to the waist. The director’s vision of turning his wife into “the unattainable fantasy of all married men” came true and she was ruthlessly marketed as an icon of sexual liberation in changing times.

But Brigitte, who died yesterday aged 91, was never happy to be merely someone’s fantasy. Despite starring in more than 50 films and becoming world-famous, she was frustrated in her ambition to become a serious actress.

And far from revelling in her role as a “sex kitten”, she struggled with objectification.

On her 26th birthday in 1960 she attempted suicide. And at the height of her fame in 1973 she retired from acting aged 39 to focus on her passion of animal rights.

Campaigning

This compassion was not always extended to every member of her own species: Brigitte was convicted six times for inciting racial hatred.

But she will be remembered for her tireless campaigning as much as her beauty — exactly the legacy she wanted for herself.

Born in Paris in 1934, Bardot and sister Marie-Jeanne grew up in a luxurious apartment not far from the Eiffel Tower. Her mother enrolled her in ballet classes from the age of seven and she trained at the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance.

Aged 15, a family friend encouraged Bardot to pose for the cover of Elle magazine, where photographers said she embodied the new “jeune fille” — young girl — style.

The pictures also caught the attention of film director Marc Allegret.