Singer and actor Jane Birkin dies at 76

Jane Birkin, the British-born actor and singer who had transfixed her adopted nation of France for the reason that Nineteen Sixties, has died in Paris aged 76.

Birkin’s waif-like, nearly androgynous fashion made her a success with French audiences after she grew to become a star via a sequence of collaborations with the late singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.

The duo, who have been lovers, grew to become infamous for the provocative 1969 tune “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, although Birkin went on to launch lots of her personal albums, appeared in movie roles and had a protracted profession of touring and performing, notably in France. 

France’s tradition ministry confirmed Birkin’s loss of life on Sunday and lauded her collaborations with a few of the nation’s largest figures in movie and music, from the singer Étienne Daho to the late director Agnès Varda. The ministry known as Birkin a “timeless francophone icon”.

Prime minister Élisabeth Borne, writing on Twitter, known as Birkin “unforgettable, with a novel voice and allure”.

Birkin was discovered at dwelling in her Parisian condominium by a nursing aide on Sunday, in response to Le Parisien newspaper and BFM TV, which first reported information of her loss of life. She had lately cancelled a sequence of deliberate concert events, citing well being issues. 

Birkin was born in London in 1946; her mom was an actress, her father a navy commander. She captured the creativeness of French audiences along with her tumultuous love life in addition to her fashion and music. A part of her allure got here from the English accent she by no means misplaced. Her wide-eyed look, straight locks and fringe, and tomboyish fashion have been a lot admired and copied. 

In later a long time she even got here to encourage the luxurious Hermès leather-based “Birkin” baggage, whose costs begin at $10,000, which have been designed in her honour and launched in 1984.

Birkin’s life was additionally marked by tragedy. A daughter, Kate Barry, from a relationship with composer John Barry, died in 2013 at 46. Birkin is survived by two different daughters — Charlotte Gainsbourg, whose father was Serge Gainsbourg, and Lou Doillon, her daughter with French director Jacques Doillon. Each are actresses. 

Birkin met Gainsbourg on the British set of her movie Slogan. The pair went on to file “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, which Gainsbourg had initially written for former companion Brigitte Bardot. The tune’s conspicuous sighs and sexually specific lyrics shocked on the time, and it was banned by the BBC and radio stations from Brazil to Spain, although it nonetheless reached primary in Britain. 

The pair grew to become regulars on the buzzing Parisian nightclub scene, however Birkin’s relationship with Gainsbourg, a heavy drinker, fell aside within the early Nineteen Eighties. 

Birkin additionally starred in La Piscine, a 1969 film with French movie grandees Alain Delon and the late Romy Schneider.

She had stored her standing as a vogue idol in recent times, performing her hit “Child Alone in Babylone” in the midst of a Gucci catwalk present on the former Palace nightclub in Paris in 2018.

Singer Daho, who collaborated on albums with Birkin, mentioned on social media on Sunday: “It’s unimaginable to stay in a world with out your mild.”