She died at the age of 76 Jane Birkin, British singer and actress, French naturalized. According to initial reports, she was found dead in her Paris home.
He had recently canceled a tour for health reasons. “I’ve always been a huge optimist and I realize I still need some time to be able to get back on stage and perform with you,” she wrote in a May statement announcing the cancellation of her shows.
In 2021, she suffered a minor stroke from which she quickly recovered. In the same year the daughter came Charlotte Gainsbourg dedicated the documentary to her”Jane from Charlotte”.
Charlotte Gainsbourg and mother Jane Birkin
The most beautiful pout in cinema
Jane Birkin was born in London in 1946 and moved to France in the late 1960s. After a first marriage to the composer John Barry, with whom he had a daughter Kate, who died in 2013, he met Serge Gainsbourg. Together, they formed the most iconic and scandalous couple of the ’70s, thanks in part to the unforgettable 1969 duet “Je t’aime… moi non plus.” Their union produced their daughter, Charlotte.
After separating from Gainsbourg, she joined director Jacques Doillon in 1980, with whom she had a daughter, Lou Doillon.
A transversal icon, singer, but also actress, screenwriter and director, Jane Birkin has starred in many films such as ‘The pool‘ with Alain Delon, ‘A woman like me‘ (1973) by Roger Vadim starring Brigitte Bardot o’The Lost Girl‘ with Michel Piccoli, and she had dabbled in theater too.
Among the cult films Bust, Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 masterpiece Swinging London, which brought it to the attention of a wide audience. But also the film adaptation of Gainsbourg’s hit, which he himself turned into a film for the big screen with his wife in the leading role. Then the yellow ones Killer on the Nile (1978) supra crimes under the sun (1982).
Getty Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, A Woman Like Me
When the BBC censored Je t’aime moi non plus
It was 9 October 1969 and for the first time the historic BBC show Top of the Pops refused to air that week’s number one hit: ‘Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus’ sung by Serge Gainsbourg by Jane Birkin, convincing voices with groans and sighs that made his worldwide success.
Written the year before, when the French singer-songwriter was dating Brigitte Bardot, the version she sang sat on the shelf until 1986. In 1969 Gainsbourg took on the new flame and immediately had great public success bigoted censorship: even in Italy the sale was forbidden.
pay Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg in the 70’s
The “wish bag” dedicated to her.
The dedicated Hermès “must-have” bag, an accessory for the few, bears the name or surname of the actress.
It was Jane Birkin herself who told how things were going. It seems that in 1984, during a flight from Paris to London, where Jean-Louis Dumas, the fashion house’s stylist, was also traveling, she opened her Hermès bag, from which a multitude of papers and notes fell out. Then Dumas took the bag and gave it back to him a few weeks later, with an extra bag (which has now become standard).
Later, a prototype was created especially for the actress, which was renamed “Birkin”. The bag has become a symbol of luxury in popular culture, even considering the wait times to have it made to order.
The actress repeatedly said that the object far surpassed her in fame, up to “disavow” in 2015 after being warned about the cruel practices crocodiles were subjected to when they were killed to make the bags. In response to his statements, the fashion house announced that it had implemented controls on farms.