Brigitte Lahaie was born on October 12, 1955 in Tourcoing, Nord, France. Her father was a banker and her mother was an accountant. Brigitte also has two brothers and a sister. Lahaie moved with her sister to Paris, France in 1975 and worked in a shoe store prior to getting her first film job through a newspaper advert. Brigitte began performing in explicit hardcore movies in 1976 just a year following the legalization of hardcore pornography in France. After establishing herself as a star attraction in adult fare, Brigitte played a small role in the horror picture Les raisins de la mort (1978) for cult cinema director Jean Rollin. Lahaie went on to tackle a lead role in Fascination (1979) for Rollin. Moreover, in the early 1980's Brigitte decided to stop doing porn and made a concentrated effort to appear in more traditional mainstream films under the alias Brigitte Simonin. (She has small parts in such mainstream movies as Diva (1981) and Henry & June (1990).) In addition, Lahaie published an autobiography in 1987, recorded and released a pop single, and even did a successful one-woman stage show about her life and career before going on to become the hostess of her own daily talk radio show that largely centers on issues concerning sexuality and relationships. Brigitte was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame as a Film Pioneer in 2014.
