Actress and singer Jane Birkin dies, France loses an ‘icon’

Jane Birkin, a British-born actress and singer who rose to fame in France during the 1960s, has passed away in Paris at the age of 76.

Actress Jane Birkin dies: According to the French Ministry of Culture, a “timeless Francophone icon” had been lost to the nation.

She was found dead at her house, according to persons close to her, who spoke to the local media. Birkin experienced a small stroke in 2021 after experiencing cardiac issues earlier in the decade.

The song “Je t’aime…moi non plus,” which she and her then-lover, the late French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, sung in their 1969 hit, made Birkin famous abroad.

She had been a resident of her adopted France since the late 1960s, and in addition to her singing and several film parts, she was well-known for her pleasant personality and tenacious support of LGBT and women’s rights.

The “most Parisian of the English has left us,” according to Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris. We will never forget her melodies, her giggles, or her unmistakable accent that was always with us.

Jane Birkin: A British Icon in French Cinema and Music

The daughter of Royal Navy officer David Birkin and British actress Judy Campbell, Jane Mallory Birkin was born in London in December 1946.

She began acting at the age of 17, and in 1965 she made her Broadway debut in the John Barry musical “Passion Flower Hotel,” which she later married. Late in the 1960s, the couple divorced.

Before crossing the Channel at the age of 22, she became well-known for her role in the contentious Michelangelo Antonioni film “Blow-Up” from 1966.

But it was in France that she really became well-known, both for her passionate relationship with the country’s troubled star Gainsbourg and for her charming British accent while speaking French, which some have speculated she purposefully developed.

She continued her career as a singer and actress after the dissolution of that relationship in 1981, performing on stage and releasing albums like “Baby Alone in Babylone” in 1983 and “Amour des Feintes” in 1990, both of which had lyrics and music by Gainsbourg.

Jane Birkin’s Life, Loves, and Legacy

In 2002, she self-penned the album “Arabesque,” and in 2009, she issued “Jane at the Palace,” a collection of live recordings.

The French singer Etienne Daho, who worked on Birkin’s final album in 2020 and produced and composed it, said of Birkin: “It’s impossible to live in a world without you.”

On the shooting of the movie “Slogan” in 1969, Birkin first met Gainsbourg, who was getting over Brigitte Bardot. The two soon started a love affair that enthralled the country.

They recorded “Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus” (I Love You… Me Neither) that same year. Gainsbourg’s graphic lyrics about physical love are interspersed with breathy moans and sobs from Birkin.

The Vatican and the BBC both deemed the song to be offensive.

The relationship eventually suffered because of Gainsbourg’s drinking, and Birkin left him in 1981 to move in with the director Jacques Doillon. She remained close to the troubled singer, nonetheless, right up until his passing in March 1991.

During this time, Jean-Louis Dumas, the chief executive of Hermes, witnessed her struggling with her straw bag on a flight to London, accidentally spilling the contents all over the floor. This incident inspired him to create the iconic Birkin bag.

Her two children, singer and actress Lou Doillon and actress and singer Charlotte, both born in 1971 and 1982, respectively, survive her. Kate, a daughter she also had, was born in 1967 and passed away in 2013.