Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (born 21 July 1971) is a French and British actress and singer.

She is the daughter of English actress and singer Jane Birkin and French singer Serge Gainsbourg.

After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon Incest" at the age of 12, she released an album with her father at the age of 15.

More than 20 years passed before Gainsbourg released albums as an adult (5:55, IRM, Stage Whisper and Rest) to commercial and critical success.

Gainsbourg was born on 21 July 1971 in the Marylebone area of Central London to English actress and singer Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg.

Gainsbourg was born at the height of her parents' fame; they had made headlines three years earlier with the sexually explicit song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" and by that point had become notorious for their turbulent relationship and multiple artistic collaborations.

As a result, her birth and childhood were well publicised.

At birth, she received the surname of Gainsbourg, her father's stage name, but at the age of 18 she changed her surname to Ginsburg, her father's legal surname.

She has continued to use the Gainsbourg name professionally.

Her maternal grandmother was actress Judy Campbell, and her uncle is screenwriter Andrew Birkin, who directed her in The Cement Garden.

She is a cousin of theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter.

Gainsbourg's father was Jewish, whereas her mother is from a Protestant background.

Gainsbourg attended École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel in Paris and Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland.

French is Gainsbourg's first language, but she is also fluent in English.

Gainsbourg was raised in Paris alongside her half-sister, Kate Barry, from her mother's marriage to composer John Barry.

By 1980, her parents' relationship had dissolved and her mother left her father for the director Jacques Doillon.

Her half-sister, Lou Doillon, was born in 1982 as a result of the union.

She stated that her mother had pushed her into acting, believing that she wanted to be an actress and encouraging her to make her motion picture debut playing Catherine Deneuve's daughter in the film Paroles et Musique (1984).

Gainsbourg would go on to work with her stepfather in the film The Temptation of Isabelle in 1985 and later in Amoureuse in 1992, which also starred her future partner Yvan Attal.

She has a young brother, Lucien "Lulu" Gainsbourg, born in 1986 from her father's relationship with Bambou.

On her father's side she also had two older siblings born from his second marriage to Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi.

In 1986, Gainsbourg won a César Award for "Most Promising Actress" for An Impudent Girl.

That same year Gainsbourg appeared in the film Charlotte for Ever about a man who develops incestuous desires for his teenage daughter after his wife dies.

Written and directed by Gainsbourg's father Serge Gainsbourg, who also took the role of Gainsbourg's father on screen, the film heightened the controversy that had resulted from Gainsbourg's debut single Lemon Incest, which had similar themes and also was created and sung with her father Serge causing press speculation that the material was autobiographical.

In 1987, she was the target of a bungled kidnapping.

In 1988, she appeared together with her mother in a set of films Kung Fu Master and the documentary drama Jane B. by Agnes V., both directed by Agnès Varda.

After her parents separated, Gainsbourg's father descended into alcoholism, eventually dying of a heart attack in 1991.

Gainsbourg remained devoted to preserving his legacy and preserved his home, saying she hoped to eventually turn it into a museum.

Maison Gainsbourg opened in 2023.

She eventually abandoned the project and decided to maintain the house as a private residence instead.

Gainsbourg grew up on film sets, as both of her parents were involved in the film industry.

In 1993, Gainsbourg made her English-speaking debut in The Cement Garden, written and directed by her uncle, Andrew Birkin.

Her stage debut was in 1994, in David Mamet's Oleanna at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse.

In 1996, Gainsbourg starred as the title character in Jane Eyre, a film adaption of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel.

In 2000, she won the César Award for "Best Supporting Actress" for the film La Bûche.

In 2003, Gainsbourg starred in 21 Grams, with Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro.

In 2006, Gainsbourg appeared alongside Gael García Bernal in Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep.

She has acted in many films, including collaborations with Lars von Trier, and received two César Awards and Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award 2009 for the movie "Antichrist", among many nominations.

Kate Barry died in 2013 after falling out of a window.

According to Birkin, both parents were somewhat neglectful, often spending their nights going out to parties and drinking.