Jane Birkin Net Worth – 2023

Jane Birkin Net Worth:

$20 Million

What is the net worth of Jane Birkin?

The English actress and singer Jane Birkin has a net worth of $20 million. In the 1960s, she began appearing in motion pictures. She was cast as the lead in the 1969 French film “Slogan” alongside actor Serge Gainsbourg. In addition to releasing a song together from the film, the two would go on to collaborate on a number of subsequent duets.

Other television and film appearances include “Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman,” “Je t’aime…moi non plus,” “Death on the Nile,” “Evil Under the Sun,” “Leave All Fair,” “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries,” and “Elektra.” Birkin was also a popular singer, releasing 14 studio albums between 1969 and 2008.

Jane is, in fact, the namesake of the renowned Hermes “Birkin bag” released in 1984. According to folklore, Jean-Louis Dumas, the CEO of Hermes, was sat next to Jane on a journey from Paris to London in early 1984. The contents of Jane’s travel bag fell out of the overhead compartment after being placed there. Birkin grumbled to Dumas that it was impossible to locate an elegant leather weekend bag as she raced to put everything back in her purse. This will be discussed in greater detail later in the text.

Early Years

Birkin was born in Marylebone, London, England on December 14, 1946. Her mother, Judy Campbell, was an English stage actress, whilst her father, David Birkin, was a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy during World War II who operated as a spy. She was reared in Chelsea with her brother Andrew, who later became a playwright and director. She attended Upper Chine School, Isle of Right, and has characterized herself as an introverted student.

Career

Birkin’s passion in acting began at an early age, although she did not begin earning parts until her late teens. In 1965, she played an uncredited appearance in “The Knack…and How to Get It.” She had significantly larger roles in the counterculture films “Blowup” and “Kaleidoscope” the following year. In 1968, she was cast as a model in the film “Wonderwall,” followed by a role in the 1969 sexual French thriller “La Piscine.” Despite not speaking French, she landed the main part in the French film “Slogan” in the same year. She co-starred with Serge Gainsbourg in the film, which led to a career of collaboration between the two.

After “Slogan,” Birkin decided to go to France permanently. 1969 marked one of the high points of her singing career when she and Gainsbourg produced the duet “Je t’aime…moi non plus.” The song was so popular that it broke many records and made UK chart history as the country’s best-selling foreign-language record ever. Due to its sexual content, the song was also banned from radio stations in Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. She performed with Gainsbourg again on his 1971 album “Histoire de Melody Nelson.”

After a brief absence from acting in 1973, she portrayed Brigitte Bardot’s lover in “Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman.” She also had a supporting part opposite Christopher Lee and Joan Collins in the horror thriller “Dark Places.” She acted in Gainsbourg’s debut film, “Je t’aime me non plus,” in 1975. The British Board of Picture Classification prohibited the film in the United Kingdom due to its sexually explicit content, which was based on the same-titled album. In spite of this, the film was a triumph and garnered Birkin the Cesar Award for Best Actress.

In 1978, Birkin began appearing in advertising for Lee Cooper jeans. She also continued acting, starring in various films based on Agatha Christie novels, including “Death on the Nile” and “Evil Under the Sun.” Additionally, she continued to build her singing career and made many CDs. Among them are “Baby Alone in Babylone”, “Lolita Go Home”, and “Rendez-vous”. Her musical skills garnered her the Female Artist of the Year prize at the 1992 Victoires de la Musique ceremony.

In 1981, she featured in two films directed by Jacques Doillon: “La fille prodigue” and “La pirate.” Her performance in these films prompted Patrice Chereau to invite her to star in “La Fausse suivante” by Marivaux. She also collaborated with filmmaker Herbert Vesely in the film “Egon Schiele Excess and Bestrafung,” in which she portrayed Egon Schiele’s mistress. “La Belle Noiseuse” got her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 1991 Cesar Awards.

Birkin continued to feature in films throughout the 2000s, including “Merci Docteur Rey” and “Elektra.” She released a new album titled “Fictions” in 2006 and a duet with Brazilian artist Sergio Dias in 2010. In 2016, she was featured in a commercial for Yves Saint Laurent alongside a variety of female performers. In the same year, she also starred in the Academy Award-nominated film “La femme et le TGV.” She indicated that this would be her final job as an actress. In 2017, she published “Birkin/Gainsbourg: Le Symphonique,” a compilation of songs composed for her by Gainsbourg throughout their relationship. In 2017, she gave a live performance in promotion of the album in Brussels.

Birkin Bag

In addition to her other professional endeavors, the name of Jane Birkin is connected with a handbag developed by Jean-Louis Dumas, the Hermes CEO during the mid-1980s. As a result of an occurrence on an airline in which Birkin and Dumas were sat next to one another and Birkin’s bag fell over, spilling its contents, Dumas decided to build a leather bag for Birkin that would meet her demands. The bag was called the “Birkin bag” and over time it has become a status symbol.

Currently, a “normal” Birkin Bag costs $11,000. Private and public auctions have realized hundreds of thousands of dollars for some rare versions. In May of 2017, an auction at Christie’s sold a bag for $380,000. Celebrities, like as Kim Kardashian, are rumored to be “obsessed” with the bags and to have vast collections.

Hermes makes around 70,000 Birkin bags annually, and the waiting list for one can stretch up to six years. In less than a decade, a Miami resale boutique that specializes in the bag has resold more than $60 million worth of the bags.

Jane requested that Hermes remove her name off the crocodile version of the purse in 2015 owing to ethical concerns with the killing of alligators.

Personal Life

Birkin met composer John Barry at age 17. The couple married in 1965, when Birkin was 19 years old, and they had a daughter, Kate, in 1967. The couple split in 1968, and Birkin went to London to live with her family so she could pursue her acting career more seriously.

After meeting Serge Gainsbourg on the filming of “Slogan” in 1968, they had a 12-year romance, but never married. Together, they had a daughter called Charlotte in 1971. They stayed close throughout the years and continued to collaborate on projects until Gainsbourg’s death in 1991.

Birkin also had a relationship with the filmmaker Jacques Doillon, with whom she had a son named Lou Doillon in 1982. The couple divorced around the 1990s. Birkin remained single after their split, but it was later rumoured that she was in a relationship with French author Olivier Rolin. Since the late 1960s, she has mostly inhabited the city of Paris.