Actor, singer and style icon Jane Birkin has died aged 76.

British-born actress and singer Jane Birkin, who famously inspired the Hermès Birkin bag, has died in Paris aged 76.

Local media reported Birkin was found dead at her home on Sunday, citing people close to her.

The cause of her death is not yet known. 

The singer had been experiencing health problems, suffering a mild stroke in 2021 as well as heart problems in previous years. 

Following her death, the French Culture Ministry said the country had lost a "timeless Francophone icon".

Le 16 juillet 2023 disparaît l'actrice et chanteuse Jane Birkin à l'âge de 76 ans. Ses collaborations avec les plus grands (Serge Gainsbourg, Etienne Daho ou encore Agnès Varda) ont fait d'elle une icône francophone intemporelle. pic.twitter.com/aRkuxR2Tcm

— Ministère de la Culture 🇫🇷 (@MinistereCC) July 16, 2023

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the "most Parisian of the English has left us".

"We will never forget her songs, her laughs and her incomparable accent which always accompanied us."

Born in 1946 to British actress Judy Campbell and Royal Navy commander David Birkin, Birkin was best known overseas for her 1969 hit in which she and her then-lover, the late French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, sang the sexually explicit 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'. 

The song was banned by the BBC and condemned by the Vatican.

Image: Getty.

Birkin and Gainsbourg first met on the set of the film Slogan in 1969. Gainsbourg was recovering from a break-up with Brigitte Bardot at the time, and the two quickly began a love affair that captivated the nation.

Gainsbourg's drinking eventually got the better of the relationship, and Birkin left him in 1981 to live with film director Jacques Doillon. However, she remained close to the troubled singer until his death in March 1991.

It was around this time that she inspired the famous Birkin bag by French luxury house Hermès, after chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas saw her struggling with her straw bag on a flight to London, spilling the contents over the floor.

The Birkin has since become one of the most iconic and sought-after bags in the world.

In 2002, the 76-year-old wrote her album Arabesque, before she released a collection of live recordings in 2009.

Aside from her singing and roles in dozens of films, she was a popular figure for her fight for women's and LGBT rights.

Birkin is survived by two daughters the singer and actress Charlotte, born in 1971, and Lou Doillon, also an actress, born in 1982. 

She also had a daughter, Kate, who was born in 1967 and died in 2013.

- With AAP.

Feature Image: Laurent KOFFEL/Gamma-Rapho/Getty.