1. Jane Mallory Birkin was a British-French actress, singer, and designer.
59 Facts About Jane Birkin
1. 2.
Jane Birkin had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.
3.
Jane Birkin 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 and Evil Under the Sun, as well as James Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries.
4.
Jane Birkin lived mainly in France from the late 1960s onwards and acquired French citizenship.
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Jane Birkin 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.
6.
Jane Birkin lent her name to the Hermes Birkin handbag.
7.
Jane Mallory Birkin was born on 14 December 1946, in Marylebone, London.
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Jane Birkin's mother, Judy Mary Campbell, was an actress best known for her work on stage, whose family was acquainted with the family of Margaret Thatcher while living in Grantham.
9.
Jane Birkin was Noel Coward's muse and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" was written for her.
10.
Jane Birkin was raised in Chelsea and described herself as a "shy English girl".
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Jane Birkin attended Miss Ironside's School in Kensington and Upper Chine School on the Isle of Wight.
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Jane Birkin began auditioning for film and television roles in Britain and in Los Angeles.
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Jane Birkin emerged in the Swinging London scene of the 1960s, appearing in an uncredited part in The Knack.
14.
Jane Birkin had a small role in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup with Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles.
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Jane Birkin said that on the day of her audition, she had no idea who Antonioni was.
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Jane Birkin had a more substantial role in the counterculture era film Kaleidoscope and a starring role as a fantasy-like model in Joe Massot's psychedelic film Wonderwall.
17.
Jane Birkin met Serge Gainsbourg when she auditioned for the lead female role in the French film Slogan in which he was starring.
18.
Jane Birkin sang backing vocals on two tracks of Gainsbourg's album l'Histoire de Melody Nelson and her portrait appeared on the album cover.
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Gainsbourg had originally written the song for Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin said it was "jealousy" that drove her to sing it.
20.
Jane Birkin recalled that all of a sudden, all the couples around them stopped talking with their knives and forks frozen in mid-air.
21.
Jane Birkin appeared on Gainsbourg's 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson, portraying the Lolita-like protagonist in song and on the cover.
22.
In 1978, Jane Birkin modeled in trade advertisements for Lee Cooper jeans.
23.
Jane Birkin left him and bought a house in the 16th arrondissement Paris, where she lived for the next 15 years.
24.
Jane Birkin began a relationship with film-maker Jacques Doillon after they met on the set of his film La fille prodigue and a daughter, Lou, was born in 1982.
25.
Jane Birkin later appeared in his film La Pirate and Jacques Rivette's L'Amour par Terre.
26.
Jane Birkin renewed her professional partnership with Gainsbourg, who had continued to write music for her after their breakup and recorded several albums with him, from Baby Alone in Babylone, their first collaboration after their separation in 1980, to Amours des feintes, the last he wrote before his death from a heart attack in March 1991.
27.
Jane Birkin starred in two films directed by Jacques Doillon: as Anne in La fille prodigue and as Alma in La pirate.
28.
Jane Birkin said The Prodigal Daughter was the first time her performance had been well received and "It touched [her] deeply to be taken seriously".
29.
Jane Birkin worked with director Herbert Vesely on Egon Schiele Exzess und Bestrafung in 1980, appearing as the mistress of Austrian artist Egon Schiele, played by Mathieu Carriere.
30.
Jane Birkin appeared in the Agatha Christie films Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun.
31.
Jane Birkin won Female Artist of the Year in the 1992 Victoires de la Musique.
32.
In 1995 Jane Birkin played one of the lead roles in the Euripides tragedy The Trojan Women at the National Theatre in London.
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Jane Birkin appeared in Merchant Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and in Merci Docteur Rey.
34.
Jane Birkin recorded the song "Beauty" on French producer Hector Zazou's album Strong Currents.
35.
Jane Birkin undertook world tours in which she performed Gainsbourg's songs and recorded more albums, including Lolita Go Home, Rendez-vous, an album of duets with, among others, Francoise Hardy and Bryan Ferry, Fictions and Enfants d'hiver.
36.
In 2006 Jane Birkin recorded and released the album Fictions, and in 2010, recorded a duet, "Marie," with Brazilian singer Sergio Dias, which appeared on We Are the Lilies, an album by Dias and French band Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree Family featured contributions from Iggy Pop and others.
37.
In 2016 Jane Birkin appeared in an advertising campaign for Yves Saint Laurent shot by Hedi Slimane which featured various female musicians, including Marianne Faithfull, Courtney Love, and Joni Mitchell.
38.
On 16 October 1965,18-year-old Jane Birkin married British composer and conductor John Barry, 13 years her senior, in a private ceremony at Chelsea Register Office, London.
39.
Barry "turned out to be a cold and unfaithful husband" and Jane Birkin wrote in her diary, aged 19, "The feeling of being unwanted, undesired and unloved is beginning to strangle me".
40.
Jane Birkin eventually went to the United States and left Birkin with their daughter in England.
41.
Jane Birkin had a romantic and creative relationship with French musician Serge Gainsbourg, 18 years her senior, whom she met on the set of Slogan in 1968.
42.
Jane Birkin described him as "a very difficult man to live with", and said that during recording sessions he would scream at her and hit her with a ruler if she could not sing a part.
43.
Jane Birkin said that Doillon lost interest in casting her in his movies, and she felt "pain for Jacques going off with all these young girls making all these films all the time".
44.
Later, Jane Birkin had a relationship with French writer Olivier Rolin.
45.
Jane Birkin mainly resided in Paris from the late 1960s onwards.
46.
Jane Birkin was described as "a fixture of the Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighbourhood on the Left Bank".
47.
On 16 July 2023, Jane Birkin was found dead at home in Paris.
48.
Jane Birkin campaigned against the far-right in France, participating in a protest denouncing the qualification of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round of the 2002 presidential election.
49.
Jane Birkin demonstrated support for immigrants, denouncing the French government's policy towards undocumented migrants in 2010.
50.
Jane Birkin announced that she was sponsoring a young Congolese who had requested political asylum.
51.
Jane Birkin won the "Best Actress" award at the 1985 Orleans Film Festival for Leave All Fair.
52.
Jane Birkin received the Order from the Prince of Wales in April 2002.
53.
Jane Birkin was awarded the French Ordre National du Merite in 2004 and 2015.
54.
Jane Birkin was described as having carried a hand-woven straw basket from Castro Marim in Algarve, Portugal, everywhere she went, from the market, to nightclubs, to formal events until her husband Jacques Doillon intentionally ran over it with his car in the early 1980s.
55.
Jane Birkin had just placed her straw basket in the overhead compartment of her seat when the contents fell out onto the floor, leaving her scrambling to recover them.
56.
Jane Birkin explained to Dumas that it had been difficult to find a leather weekend bag she liked.
57.
In 1984, he created a black supple leather bag for her: the Jane Birkin bag, based on a 1982 design.
58.
The Jane Birkin bag has, over the years, become a status symbol, with prices ranging from US$10,000 to $500,000.
59.
In 2015, Jane Birkin wrote a public letter to Hermes requesting her name be removed from the bag, stating she wanted the company to "debaptise the Jane Birkin Croco until better practices in line with international norms can be put in place", referring to the cruel methods used to acquire the skins for the crocodile variant of the bags.