Jane Birkin

Jane Birkin

Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE, is an English actress, singer, songwriter, and model. She attained international fame for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. In 2016, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La femme et le TGV, which she said would be her final film role.

About Jane Birkin in brief

Summary Jane BirkinJane Mallory Birkin, OBE, is an English actress, singer, songwriter, and model. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress in British and French cinema. In 2016, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La femme et le TGV, which she said would be her final film role. In addition to her acting and musical credits, she lent her name to the popular Hermès Birkin bag. Birkin has lived mainly in France since the 1970s. She is the mother of photographer Kate Barry, with her first husband John Barry; actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, with Serge. Gainsborough; and musician Lou Doillon, with Jacques Doillon. Her brother is the screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin. Her father was a Royal Navy lieutenant-commander and World War II spy. Her mother, Judy Campbell, was an actress, best known for her work on stage. She was born on 14 December 1946, in Marylebone, London. She married composer John Barry, whom she married in 1965 and with whom she had her first daughter, Kate, in 1967.

After the couple divorced in 1968, Birkin returned to live with her family in London, and began to audition for film and television roles in England and Los Angeles, California. She emerged in the Swinging London scene of the 1960s, appearing in an uncredited part in The Knack… and How to Get It. She had more substantial roles in the counterculture era films Blowup and Kaleidoscope and as a fantasy-like model in the psychedelic film Wonderwall. That same year, she auditioned in France for the lead female role in the film Slogan. Though she did not speak French she won the role, co-starring alongside Serge Gainingbourg, and she performed with him on the film’s theme song, \”La Chanson de Slogan\” – the first of many collaborations between the two. In 1969, she and Gainsburgh released the duet \”Je t’aime.. moi non plus\”. Gainsburg originally wrote the song for Brigitte Bardot, and was banned by radio stations in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.