Brigitte Bardot, the French actress whose sex appeal resonated in films such as “... And God Created Woman” and then abandoned her movie career to become a vigorous animal rights activist, died Sunday. She was 91.

Bardot, who was hospitalized last month, died at her home in southern France, according to Fondation Brigitte Bardot, the organization she established in 1986 for the protection of animals.

No cause of death was given, and arrangements for funeral or memorial services have yet to be announced, Bruno Jacquelin, a spokesperson for Bardot’s foundation, told The Associated Press.

In her 1956 film “... And God Created Woman,” Bardot caused a sensation with film fans and consternation among censors, performing a sensual mambo dance with a skirt slit to her waist and her hair a mess.

That was the beginning of Bardot’s “sex kitten” myth that she never lived down -- and boldly embraced.

“It was funny because, in the end, there’s nothing shocking about it,” Bardot said in a 2016 interview. “The mambo I danced was completely improvised. I gave free rein to my instincts. I danced as I felt like it, captivated by the music, that’s all!”

The film was directed by her husband, Roger Vadim, and although they were divorced shortly after its release, he would direct Bardot in four more movies over the next two decades.

The film ignited a scandal since it depicted Bardot dancing naked on tables. She popularized the bikini during an era of one-piece suits and turned heads annually at the Cannes Film Festival.

Bardot also excelled in 1960’s “The Truth” (“La Vérité”), followed three years later by “Contempt.” She later told a French newspaper reporter that “The Truth,” a crime drama nominated for an Academy Award, was the only good film she ever made.

Bardot earned her only acting award nomination in the 1965 western comedy “Viva Maria!” (1965). She was nominated for best foreign actress by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

She also appeared in comedies such as “The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful” (1956), “Babette Goes to War” (1959) and “The Vixen” (1969).

On Playboy’s 1999 list of the “100 Sexiest Stars of the Century,” Bardot placed fourth behind Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Raquel Welch.

“Everywhere girls walk, dress, wear their hair like Bardot and wish they were free souls like her,” Life magazine reported in 1961.

Time magazine once called Bardot the “Countess of Come-Hither.”

Bardot’s last two films, both made in 1973, were “The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot” and “Ms. Don Juan.”

Bardot also recorded approximately 80 songs during the 1960s and ’70s.

After retiring from films in 1973 at the age of 39, Bardot became a strong voice for animal rights.

“I gave my beauty and my youth to men, and now I am giving my wisdom and experience, the best of me, to animals,” she told a crowd at a 1987 auction of her memorabilia.

Bardot’s foundation said that it has rescued more than 12,000 animals and has worked in 70 countries over the past four decades.

“Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told the AP in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”

In 1985, Bardot was awarded France’s highest state award, the Legion of Honor.

Bardot was “an exceptional woman who gave everything and sacrificed everything for a world that is more respectful of animals.”

Bardot was born on Sept. 28, 1934, in Paris. She began modeling as a teen and appeared on the cover of Elle magazine at 15.

In 1969, her features were chosen to be the model for the national emblem of France -- “Marianne” -- and her image appeared on postage stamps, coins and statues.

In 2004, Bardot was convicted of inciting racial hatred and fined for similar comments in “A Cry in the Silence,” a nonfiction best seller in which she referred to Muslims as “cruel and barbaric invaders.”

By 2008, she had been convicted of the same charge five times.

French president Emmanuel Macron called Bardot “a legend of the century.”

“Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom. French existence, universal brilliance,” Macron wrote on X. “She touched us. We mourn a legend of the century.”

After splitting with Vadim in 1957, Bardot married Jacques Charrier, followed by Gunter Sachs from 1966 to 1969; in 1992, she married industrialist Bernard d’Ormale.

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