|
---|
Saluting the sexiest woman of all Brigitte Bardot
There's never been a sex symbol quite like Brigitte. Today, as she turns 75, here's a look at her life and times.
Brigitte Bardot wanted to be a ballet dancer. Accepted to one of Paris' finest Conservatories, she learnt ballet for three years from top Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev, alongside danseuse and actress Leslie Caron.
When she was 15, one of her mother's friends pulled Brigitte into a fashion show, and it was a short step from there to the cover of Elle magazine when she was just 16.
The Elle magazine cover got a lot of attention, and caught the eye of young filmmaker Roger Vadim. He bestowed the young girl with attention and married her in 1952, the year she turned 18, right after Bardot made her debut in Le Trou Normand.
Within the next four years, she had already appeared in 17 films.
Her first major splash happened in April 1953, when she attented the Cannes Film Festival.
A local girl, she was barely 19 when she attended the world's premiere film festival and her luscious body in a bikini entranced cameramen and journalists alike. An icon was indeed born, but none could quite predict how far Brigitte would soar.
Bardot became highly popular doing comic films but her husband didn't think this was enough. He directed And God Created Woman, a sexually explicit art-house success which made Bardot a global sensation.
Bardot divorced Roger Vadim the year after and married actor Jacques Charrier, and while this kicked up quite a controversy, Bardot was too big a star now for it to detract from her spotlight.
Over her long career, Bardot worked with directors as varied as Vadim, Louis Malle and Jean Luc Godard. Her co-stars made for a stellar list, including Alain Delon, Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale and Jane Birkin.
As a style icon, she has been immense over the years, popularising the bikini, a hairstyle and a style of shoulder-exposing neckline, now simply called the Bardot neck. Rockstars through the ages -- from The Beatles to Bob Dylan to the Red Hot Chili Peppers -- have been influenced by her.
Sex symbols who are now over 75
This September, two actresses whose names are inscribed in golden letters in the history of the world cinema celebrated their 75th anniversary.
It was Sophia Loren’s birthday on 20th September and Brigitte Bardot on 28th.
And this event is the subject of this collection of photos, where you will see them very young and till our times.
Let’s pay tribute to these living legends of the world cinema.
Sophia Loren in 1960
Brigitte Bardot in 1956
Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando in 1954
Sophia Loren in 1955
Sophia Loren with her husband the Italian film director Carlo Ponti in 1958
Brigitte Bardot in her sixties heyday
Sophia Loren in 1958
Sophia Loren and Cary Grant starring in 'Houseboat' in 1958
Sophia Loren in 1959
Sophia Loren as Epifania Parerga in 'The Millionairess' in 1960
Brigitte Bardot
Sophia Loren in 1962 with her Oscar for Best Actress in the film, 'La Ciociara'
Sophia Loren in 1964
Brigitte Bardot in 1967
Sophia Loren in 1966
Brigitte Bardot in 1967
Sophia Loren in 1977 starring in the film "Una Giornata Particolare"
Brigitte Bardot in 1979
Brigitte Bardot in 1989
Brigitte Bardot in 1994
Sophia Loren in 1995
Bridgitte Bardot in 2001
Sophia Loren in 2002
Sophia Loren in 2004
Brigitte Bardot in 2006
Brigitte Bardot in 2007
Sophia Loren in 2009