The French director, Roger Vadim, whose wives, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda, starred in his films, has died at the age of seventy-two.

He was suffering from cancer.

Vadim, whose real name was Roger Plemiannikov, launched the career of his first wife, Bardot, in the film "And God created woman " in 1956.

Fonda starred in his 1968 movie "Barbarella".

Vadim married for a fifth time in 1990 and is survived by his current wife and four children -- one of whom he had with the film star Catherine Deneuve.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service