Photos of Brigitte Bardot in Her Sex-Kitten

Brigitte Bardot turned her back on stardom in 1973, at the height of her beauty—and went off to start her real life. As an exhibition of photographs of Bardot hits L.A., the curator, Henry-Jean Servat, gets a rare invitation to the St. Tropez sanctuary of the French legend, who expresses no regrets about her sex-kitten years and no interest in her image, but a total commitment to her cause.

Striking poses in the early 1960s

“I wasn’t scandalous—I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be myself.”

Bardot signing autographs at Cannes, 1953

Bardot the model, 1954

On the set of Doctor at Sea, 1955

Portrait of Bardot in 1957

Bardot on the set of . . . And God Created Woman, 1956

In between takes during the filming of A Very Private Affair, 1962

On the set of A Very Private Affair

With her dog in St. Tropez, 1962

In Capri during the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 movie Contempt

On the set of Viva Maria in 1965

Bardot in 1965

Bardot and third husband Gunter Sachs, in Las Vegas, 1966

On the set of Shalako, 1968, in Almería, Spain

In Almería, 1968. Bardot often fed stray animals

On the set of Les Femmes, 1969

With a special dance partner in the early 1970s

In 1970, toward the end of her acting career

On the set of Frenchie King in Almería, Spain, one of Bardot’s final three films

Bardot in 1968 at La Madrague, the home in St. Tropez where she lives today. She has few visitors and keeps away from the old port, preferring the St. Tropez of memory.

(via Vanity Fair)