Actress, singer and fashion icon Jane Birkin passes away at 76

Jane Birkin, the British actor and singer who rose to fame in France, is no more. She was 76. Birkin was born in London, but moved to Paris at the age of 20 to work in the film Slogan.

She fell in love with the film’s star, French actor and singer Serge Gainsbourg, and the two quickly became the focus of public attention. The couple frequently collaborated professionally, most notably on Je t’aime… moi non plus. Despite being British, Birkin quickly became a star in her own right and a fashion icon in France. Hermes, the French luxury house, used her as inspiration for the famous Birkin bag.

Birkin began her acting career with minor roles in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966) and Kaleidoscope (1966). Birkin went on to appear in the Agatha Christie adaptations Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982). In 1991, she starred in the miniseries Red Fox, and in 1998, in the American drama film A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries. She also starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La Femme et le TGV in 2016, which she stated was her final film role.