Jane Birkin, Singer, Actress and Inspiration Behind the Hermès Bag, Dead at 76
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The British-born French icon behind the song "Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus" died on Sunday, the French Ministry of Culture confirmed
Steve Wood/Evening Standard/Getty Images
Jane Birkin died on July 16 at age 76.Jane Birkin has died at age 76.
The British-born singer and actress died on Sunday, the French Ministry of Culture confirmed in a tweet, calling her a “timeless French-speaking icon.”
Reps for the actress didn't immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
The beloved actress’ cause of death is not yet known but, according to ABC News, the actress has been plagued with health issues in recent years — including a stroke in 2021 and a broken shoulder blade earlier this year — which have kept her from performing and appearing publicly.
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Jane Birkin, who died on July 16, 2023 at age 76, at Cannes Film Festival in 2021.Born in London in December 1946 to Judy Campbell and David Birkin, the actress found fame — and a lifelong home — in France after moving to Paris to work on the movie Slogan when she was 20, according to CNN. On the set of the 1968 film, she met and coupled up with the film’s star, French actor and singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.
Later that same year, Birkin and Gainsbourg — who became a nationwide French fascination — collaborated on the actress’s most well-known song, sexually suggestive duet “Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus," which translates to "I Love You... Me Neither."
In a 2006 interview with CNN, Birkin reflected on her very public relationship with the singer, a connection that catapulted her into the French spotlight.
“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,” she told the outlet of her former flame, who died in 1991. “And he went on being my friend until the day he died. Who could ask for more? So Paris became my home. I've been adopted here.”
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Despite her British roots, the singer became a fashion icon in France in the 1960s and ‘70s, inspiring the creation of one of the most expensive and highly sought-after luxury bags in the world — the Birkin bag by French luxury design house Hermès.
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Jane Birkin, who died on July 16, 2023 at age 76, in London in 1973.In the 2006 interview, the actress also reflected on her fashion icon status in the country that "adopted" her and, ever-so-humbly, essentially pinned it to luck.
“They like my accent [and] when I came here the skirts were shorter than anyone else's,” she told CNN. “Everyone at home was wearing just the same as me. I was the lucky one because I got here first so they thought it was my fashion.”
As her youngest daughter Lou Doillon, 40, put it in a 2017 interview with CNN, the actress now “represents a very Parisian style — which is funny because she’s not.”
In addition to Doillon, who Birkin shares with French director Jacques Doillon, Birkin is also survived by daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, a 51-year-old actress whom she shares with Gainsbourg, according to ABC News.
Her daughter Kate Barry, who she shared with ex-husband and composer John Barry, died in 2013 at age 46.
In addition to “Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus,” her chic style and her love life, Birkin also made a name for herself as an actress beyond Slogan, starring in several iconic films. She is most known for The Blow-Up (1966), Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982), according to IMDb. She made her directorial debut with Boxes in 2007.
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French president Emmanuel Macron lauded the actress in a tribute on Twitter following her death, writing, “Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon.”
Parce qu’elle incarnait la liberté, qu’elle chantait les plus beaux mots de notre langue, Jane Birkin était une icône française.
Artiste complète, sa voix était aussi douce que ses engagements étaient ardents.
Elle nous lègue des airs et des images qui ne nous quitteront pas. pic.twitter.com/Ad27ngF54R— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 16, 2023
He continued, “A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us.”
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