Jane Birkin: Artist and style icon’s life in pictures
The singer and actress Jane Birkin has died at the age of 76.
The English-French star was born in London in 1946 and later relocated to France, where she met singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and embarked on a tumultuous professional and personal relationship.
She continued her singing career in the 1990s and beyond, regularly performing at French music festivals. Birkin was also a lifelong pro-democracy and animal rights activist.
French President Emmanuel Macron described her as a “French icon” who “embodied freedom” and “sang the most beautiful words of our language”.
Jane Birkin as a young actress in London, September 1964
Birkin and Gainsbourg, shown here in London in 1977, had a tumultuous relationship that reportedly included violence, but she frequently defended him
Birkin and Gainsbourg had a daughter together, Charlotte (left), and the singer had another daughter, Kate (centre), with British composer John Barry. She had a third child, Lou, (not pictured) with French film director Jacques Doillon
Pictured here in 1985, Birkin was seen as a leading style icon
Birkin, a lifelong pro-democracy activist, visited a refugee camp in Myanmar in 2010
Birkin was treated for leukaemia in the late 1990s, but continued to perform – here she is on stage at Geneva’s Festival Antigel in 2018. But she was forced to cancel her appearance at the American Film Festival in France after a reported stroke in 2021
Birkin and her daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg at the Cesar Film Awards in Paris in February 2023
