London actress Jane Birkin has died at the age of 76 in Paris. As reported by the newspaper ‘Le Parisien’, she has been found dead in her Parisian home.
Jane Birkin, who was also a singer, had recently canceled concerts due to her failing health.
Although she was born in London, she had French nationality, since she had lived in the country since the late 1960s. She had a passionate relationship with Serge Gainsbourg that became world famous thanks to the success of the song “Je t’aime… moi non plus’ With Gainsburg, he also had one of his three daughters, Charlotte, who is also a well-known actress.
She had two others from other relationships: Kate, who died in 2013, who she had with her only official husband, composer John Barry, and Lou, who is also an actress and singer and the daughter of French film director Jacques Doillon.
Jane Birkin was born in London on December 14, 1946. She began her acting career at just 17 years old and soon met John Barry, who gave her her first role in the musical Passion Flower Hotel, in 1965. They married soon after and Jane had her first daughter, Kate, in 1967.
When he was 20 years old, he emerged on the Swinging London scene thanks to a brief appearance in Antonioni’s film Blow Up, which was awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. But it was another film that changed her life, Slogan by director Pierre Grimblat. It’s not that Grimblat was more talented than Antonioni, far from it, it’s that on that set Birkin met the actor and enfant terrible, Serge Gainsbourg, with whom they began a passionate love story.
The Birkin-Gainsbourg couple recorded together the song ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’, considered by many to be the most erotic in history. The song appeared on the 1969 album Jane Birkin-Serge Gainsbourg and was censored in many countries (including Spain, Italy and England) for being too sexually explicit, but even so, or precisely because of it, it became a hit. immediately, and it sold a million copies in just a few months. In 1971 the first and only daughter of the couple was born, Charlotte Gainsbourg, another talent with her own name.
In the early 1980s, Jane left Serge, after twelve years of relationship, and went to live with the film director Jacques Doillon. As a result of this relationship, her third daughter, Lou, was born.
That same year, “the chief executive of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas, met Birkin’s side on a flight from Paris to London. By the time that trip ended, the designer already knew that one of his next creations would be inspired by and bear the name of the British singer and actress. And so, in 1984, the prestigious French firm launched a black leather bag for her: the today coveted Birkin Bag”, recalls Verónica Marín in “Yo, Jane” for Vogue.
However, the true accessory that Jane Birkin made fashionable was the wicker carrycot, which she used both to go buy bread and to pose for the photographers on the most glamorous red carpets.
In 1990, Gainsbourg –who was no longer her partner but was her music producer- once again dedicated a love record to Jane: ‘Amours des feintes’. It was the last, as he died on March 2, 1991. Just three days later, Birkin also lost her father, David Birkin.
After some years missing from the public scene, in 1998 she released her first solo album. From then on, she did not come down from the stage again. She continued composing music and regularly collaborating with artists such as Manu Chao, Brian Molko, Caetano Veloso, Bryan Ferry or Françoise Hardy.
In 2021 he suffered a stroke that left his health delicate. He was a myth in life and, with his death, he will fill all the covers again.
