Jane Birkin

Jane Birkin started small in London, glimpsed in Antonioni's Blowup in 1966, then crossed the Channel for Slogan two years later and met Serge Gainsbourg on set. What followed was a creative and romantic partnership that made her a star in France: they released Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg in 1969, and she appeared in his 1976 film Je t'aime moi non plus. She had three daughters - photographer Kate Barry, actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, and musician Lou Doillon - with three different men. After she and Gainsbourg split in 1980 she kept working steadily in French cinema and recorded solo albums, occasionally surfacing in English-language films like Death on the Nile and A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. Hermès named a handbag after her. In 2016 she made La femme et le TGV, an Oscar-nominated short she said would be her last, and she died in Paris in July 2023.