Brigitte Bardot, French screen legend, dies aged 91

Emmanuel Macron leads tributes to​ actor who became an international sex symbol ​and later embraced animal rights​ and far-right politics

• Brigitte Bardot: a life in pictures

• Peter Bradshaw on Brigitte Bardot – a zeitgeist-force and France’s most sensational export

Brigitte Bardot, the French actor and singer who became an international sex symbol before turning her back on the film industry and embracing the cause of animal rights activism, has died aged 91.

Among those paying tribute on Sunday was the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who wrote on social media that Bardot had “embodied a life of freedom” and “universal brilliance”. France was mourning “a legend of the century”, he said.