Jane Mallory Birkin ( BUR-kin; 14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was an English-French actress and singer. She had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.
A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress,… Jane Mallory Birkin ( BUR-kin; 14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was an English-French actress and singer. She had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.
A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress, appearing in minor roles in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup (1966) and Kaleidoscope (1966). In 1968 she met Serge Gainsbourg while co-starring with him in Slogan, which marked the beginning of a years-long working and personal relationship. The duo released a debut album, Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg, in 1969, and Birkin appeared in the film Je t'aime moi non plus in 1976 under Gainsbourg's direction. She mostly worked in France, where she had become a major star, and occasionally appeared in English-language films such as the Agatha Christie adaptations Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982), as well as James Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998).
Birkin lived mainly in France from the late 1960s onward, acquiring French citizenship. She was the mother of photographer Kate Barry with her first husband John Barry; of actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg with Serge Gainsbourg; and of musician Lou Doillon with Jacques Doillon. She lent her name to the Hermès Birkin handbag. After separating from Gainsbourg in 1980, Birkin continued to work both as an actress and a singer, appearing in various independent films and recording numerous solo albums. In 2016, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La femme et le TGV, which she said would be her final film role.
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