Transformation

Brigitte Bardot was the original bedhead beauty, defining sixties sex appeal with her mussed platinum locks, smudgy liner and nude pout. But after making dozens of movies (and becoming one of the world's most famous women), she abandoned her career in 1986, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals: "I've turned a page—no more photographs, no more sex symbol, no more nonsense." In subsequent years, she's maintained her pledge, only emerging to voice her (sometimes controversial) political views—and to disavow plastic surgery. "If I looked 30, that wouldn't be normal, would it?" she once said. "I have wrinkles. And so what?"

The 18-year-old starred in her first film, Crazy for Love, and married journalist-turned-director Roger Vadim.