Jane Birkin, British-French celebrity and style icon, dies at 76

Tributes are pouring in for English singer, actor and fashion icon Jane Birkin who has died aged 76 in her adopted France.

Jane Birkin, the British-born singer and actor who became a style icon in her adopted France, has died aged 76.

Birkin had been suffering from health problems in recent years that had forced her to cancel concerts.

The cause of her death and other details were not immediately known.

Birkin was catapulted to fame largely through her turbulent relationship with legendary French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.

Singer Jane Birkin, an icon in the 1960s, and she relaxes in Sydney, in 2005 while on tour. Picture: Supplied

Birkin, who most recently toured Australia in 2005 with her Arabian band, rose to fame as an ‘It’ girl of Swinging London.

She left Great Britain in 1968 at the age of 22 to star in a film alongside Gainsbourg, who was 18 years her senior.

It was the start of a 13-year relationship that made them France’s most famous couple, in the spotlight as much for their bohemian and hedonistic lifestyle as for their work.

Birkin recorded a steamy duo with Gainsbourg in 1969, “Je t’aime … moi non plus” which was banned on radio in several countries and condemned by the Vatican.

English 1960s 'It’ girl Jane Birkin, became a singer, actress, director and style icon. Picture: Supplied

But the song was a worldwide success.

“He and I became the most famous of couples in that strange way because of ‘Je t’aime’ and because we stuck together for 13 years and he went on being my friend until the day he died. Who could ask for more?” Birkin told CNN in 2006.

“So Paris became my home. I’ve been adopted here. They like my accent,” she said.

British singer and actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg at home in Paris. Picture: Getty Images

Despite her association with Gainsbourg, Birkin was a celebrity in her own right, with her soft voice, androgynous figure, distinctive choppy fringe and toothy smile.

She seemed to embody the independent and carefree spirit of the age, and inspired women’s fashion and freedom.

She also blazed her own trail after walking out on Gainsbourgh in 1980.

In her 70 films she worked with leading directors including Michelangelo Antonioni, Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, James Ivory and Agnes Varda. She is possibly best known for Blow-Up (1966) and Evil Under the Sun (1982).

In 1984, Hermes named one of its luxury handbags after her, which remains a sought-after status symbol.

However, in 2015 Birkin distanced herself from the product, asking her name to be taken off the bag, over concerns around animal cruelty and alligator farms.

She arranged with the luxury label for a portion of sales to be donated to charity, in perpetuity.

During the coronavirus pandemic Birkin worked for a French charity that supported women suffering from domestic and intimate partner violence.

British singer and actress Jane Birkin and her daughter, actor-director Charlotte Gainsbourg at the 74th annual Cannes Film Festival. Picture: Getty Images

Birkin’s life was not without turbulence – and tragedy.

The daughter of an actor and a naval officer, Birkin married James Bond composer John Barry, with whom she had a daughter, Kate.

The marriage lasted three years, and in 2013 Kate, who had battled substance abuse and addiction, apparently committed suicide, falling from the fourth floor of her Paris apartment.

However, Birkin’s second daughter, Charlotte, who she had with Gainsbourg, became a hugely successful actor and singer, as well as a director, filming her mother for Jane by Charlotte.

Jane Birkin and her daughter French actress Lou Doillon at Cannes in 2007. Picture: AFP

The musical and romantic relationship between Charlotte’s father, Serge Gainsbourg and Birkin was famously tempestuous.

During one of their blazing fights, Birkin jumped into the River Seine after throwing a custard pie in Gainsbourg’s face.

Birkin fought leukaemia in the late 1990s and in 2021 suffered a minor stroke.

British singer and actress Jane Birkin poses during a photocall at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, in 2021. Picture: AFP

President Emmanuel Macron called Birkin “a complete artist” who “sang the most beautiful words in our language”.

“Unimaginable to live in a world without your light in it,” singer Etienne Daho, one of her close friends, wrote on Instagram.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne hailed her as an “unforgettable icon, a unique voice and charm” who “with her music and her talent transcended generations”.

Hailing an artist “eternal in our hearts”, actor and activist Brigitte Bardot said “when someone is so pretty, so fresh, so spontaneous, with the voice of a child, they don’t have the right to die.”

“There was something about her that touched the French spirit,” artist and embroiderer Jenny Hunt told AFP outside the house Birkin once shared with Gainsbourg in Paris.

“It’s kind of very hard to articulate, but you feel it when you see it.”

Birkin is survived by her daughter with Gainsbourg, Charlotte, and another daughter, Lou Doillon, a singer, from a 13-year relationship with French director Jacques Doillon.

Originally published as Jane Birkin, British-French celebrity and style icon, dies at 76