Jane Birkin, actress and fashion trendsetter, dies at 76 in Paris

Jane Birkin, the actor and fashion icon known as “France’s favorite Englishwoman,” died Sunday. She was 76.

Birkin was found dead at her home in Paris, according to French media reports. Her cause of death was not immediately announced, but she had battled health issues in recent years, including a stroke in 2021.

Arriving in Paris in 1968 to film the movie “Slogan,” Birkin almost immediately became a central figure in French culture. On the set, she met Paris-born Serge Gainsbourg and they quickly struck up a passionate romance.

Birkin further endeared herself to the French in 1969 after recording the duet “Je t’aime moi non plus” (“I Love You, Me Neither”)” with Gainsbourg. The song topped the British pop charts, the first foreign-language song to achieve that feat.

Gainsbourg and Birkin’s turbulent romance made them France’s most famous couple until they split in 1980.

Her fashion influence was further secured by a chance encounter on a 1984 flight. She was seated next to Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas when she spilled several items out of her bag. Birkin then complained to Dumas about how there weren’t any designer bags big enough for all her stuff.

To prove her point, she drew a design on the back of an airplane barf bag. Dumas used the design for a giant new Hermès bag, and Birkin allowed him to use her name on it. The much-coveted Birkin bag was born.

“I thought, ‘Oh gosh, on my obituary, it will say, ‘Like the bag’ or something,’” Birkin told CBS in 2018. “Well, it could be worse.”

Born Dec. 14, 1946, in London, Birkin was the daughter of British stage actress Judy Campbell and her husband, British naval officer David Birkin.

At age 17, she married John Barry, famous for composing the James Bond theme. But the marriage was rocky, and they divorced after three years.

Birkin had a star-making turn in the 1966 film “Blow-Up,” then skyrocketed to international fame after crossing the Channel. In addition to “Slogan,” she was known for “Death on the Nile” in 1978 and “Evil Under the Sun” in 1982.

Birkin worked with leading French directors Bertrand Tavernier, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais and James Ivory on several of her more than six dozen films. She was nominated for three Césars awards, the French version of the Oscars.

Though Birkin’s acting career slowed down, she continued making and performing music while dedicating herself to several causes, including animal rights and democracy worldwide.

In 2015, she asked Hermès to remove her name from the Birkin bag in protest of their treatment of alligators and crocodiles.

“You can always do something,” Birkin said at a 2001 Amnesty International event. “You can say, ‘I am not OK with that.’”

With News Wire Services