Photographer Ray Bellisario has revealed how he “kidnapped” Brigitte Bardot for a series of as-yet-unseen photographs that go on show in London tomorrow.
Bellisario, 78, of Heston, snapped the young star while she was on a trip to Selfridges when publicising the film Shalako with Sean Connery in 1968.
But when asked what next, she said: “I would like to go to a little pub.”
Bellisario said: “I grabbed her arm and said, ‘Okay, let’s go.’ She willingly came along, she was laughing and giggling and enjoying herself.”
The two jumped into his car, along with other photographers, and headed to a pub near her hotel, the Westbury, in Albemarle Street. The surprised landlord gave them the bar upstairs where she posed for some of the pictures now going on show. “She was so photogenic and whether she was smiling or sneezing or coughing, she looked damn sexy. She was good fun,” he said.
“Eventually she said, ‘Ray, I want you to come and sit next to me because you kidnapped me.’ That’s why I use the word ‘kidnapped’.”
Brigitte Bardot — 13 Unseen Photographs is at Dadiani Fine Art in Cork Street until June 30.
