Jane Birkin dies aged 76

Actress and singer Jane Birkin has died at the age of 76.

The British-French star was reportedly found dead at her home in Paris by her caregiver on Sunday, according to Le Parisien and BFM TV. A cause of death has not been disclosed.

Born in London, Birkin began her career as an actress in the ’60s with films such as Blowup, Kaleidoscope, and La Piscine. She shot to fame in 1968 with her on and off-screen relationship with the French singer, actor and director Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she had her daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, also a famous actress and singer.

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Birkin and Gainsbourg released a collaborative album, Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg, in 1969 and it featured the controversially explicit song Je t’aime… moi non plus. She also starred in his film of the same name in 1976.

The scandalous number one hit—which featured Birkin’s erotic breathing in verse originally written for Brigitte Bardot—was banned by the BBC and condemned by the Vatican. “We never thought for a moment that the song would become such a symbol of freedom—all over the world,” Birkin told Vogue France in 2018. “People listened to it in secret, from Spain to Argentina.” Birkin and Gainsbourg continued to collaborate until his death in 1991.

Releasing over 20 albums and gracing 65 films including La Piscine (1969) and Death on the Nile (1978), Birkin—who lived most of her life in France—received the French Ordre National du Mérite in 2004 and 2015. Her first solo album Di Doo Dah was released in 1973, and in 2017, aged 71, came Birkin/Gainsbourg: Le Symphonique—Gainsbourg songs set to Nobuyuki Nakajima’s orchestra. She toured the tunes from Calais to Carnegie Hall, New York.

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Birkin, who gave her name to the Hermès Birkin designer handbag, was also the mother of late photographer Kate Barry with her ex-husband, composer John Barry, and musician Lou Doillon with her former partner Jacques Doillon, a director.

Birkin, who had lived in Paris since the late ’60s, suffered a stroke in September 2021. She postponed a series of concerts after breaking her shoulder in March 2022.

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