French icon who inspired Birkin bags dies aged 76

British-born actress and singer Jane Birkin, a 1960s wildchild who became a beloved figure in France, has died in Paris aged 76, the French culture ministry has confirmed.

Le Parisien newspaper and BFM television reported she had been found dead at her home, citing people close to her. Birkin had a mild stroke in 2021 after suffering heart problems in previous years.

Birken was best known overseas for her 1969 hit in which she and her then-lover, the late French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, sang the sexually explicit “Je t’aime…moi non plus”.

She had lived in her adopted France since the break-up of her marriage to British composer John Barry in the late 1960s. Apart from her singing and roles in dozens of films, she was a popular figure in France for her warm nature, and stalwart fight for women’s and LGBT rights.

She also worked as a model and came to be widely seen as a fashion trendsetter, inspiring the Birkin handbag, a style put into production by Hermes.

Jane Mallory Birkin was born in London in 1946, daughter of British actress Judy Campbell and Royal Navy commander David Birkin.

Before venturing across the Channel aged 22, she achieved notoriety in the controversial 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film “Blow-Up”, appearing naked in a threesome sex scene.

But it was in France that she truly shot to fame, as much for her love affair with tormented national star Gainsbourg, as for her tomboyish style and endearing British accent when speaking French, which some said she cultivated deliberately.

She was the mother of actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, photographer Kate Barry, with her first husband John Barry; and musician Lou Doillon, with Jacques Doillon.