From solo success with As Tears Go By to starring in films such as The Girl On A Motorcycle and inspiring the songs of the Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull’s unconventional shape-shifting approach to music and film made her one of the most recognisable figures of the 1960s.
Born in London in 1946 to a British military officer and an Austro-Hungarian Jewish baroness, Faithfull began her singing career in 1964, after being spotted by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, with the single As Tears Go By, written by the band’s Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
She released her self-titled debut album in 1965, which featured top 10 hits As Tears Go By and Come And Stay With Me, at the same time as follow-up LP Come My Way, which was largely made up of folk covers.
She was famously found wearing nothing but a rug at a drugs bust at Redlands, the country house of Rolling Stones guitarist Richards in 1967.
During her time with Sir Mick, Faithfull co-wrote Sister Morphine with him and Richards, which featured on the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers, releasing her own version in 1969 featuring guitarist Ry Cooder and Jack Nitzsche on piano.
She was credited as a writer on the initial Decca release of her own version, but omitted from later releases prompting a legal dispute which eventually saw her credited on both the Stones and her own reissues.
It has also been claimed that Faithfull inspired Stones songs including Let It Bleed cut You Can’t Always Get What You Want and Dear Doctor from 1968’s Beggars Banquet, while it has also been reported that The Beatles’ And Your Bird Can Sing was inspired by her and Sir Mick’s relationship.
Faithfull also appeared as part of withheld concert film The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, filmed in 1968 and intended to be aired on the BBC.
The film was not released until 1996, and features the singer performing the song Something Better.
In 1968, she suffered a miscarriage of her and Sir Mick’s child, the first of three she would have during her lifetime.
Following her split with Sir Mick in 1970, Faithfull spent two years on the streets of Soho while addicted to heroin before living in a squat.
She returned to music releasing the new wave-influenced album Broken English in 1979, which was nominated for a Grammy Award, and is now regarded as a classic.
Her final album was an experimental collaboration with Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ Australian multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, called She Walks In Beauty (2021).
It came after she had enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after she was said to be admired by the likes of Kate Moss and Courtney Love.
In addition to her music career, Faithfull also acted in films including psychedelic erotic thriller The Girl On A Motorcycle with French actor Alain Delon, as well as theatre productions.
One of her earliest films was I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name (1967), alongside Orson Welles, and she recently provided the voice of Bene Gesserit Ancestor in Dune (2021).
Faithfull suffered from ill health in her later years.
In 2006, it was announced that she had made a full recovery from breast cancer.
Doctors in France had diagnosed the disease in September, forcing the star to postpone her world tour.
But the cancer was found in its “earliest stages” and following surgery, she announced she would resume her tour the next year.
She was quoted as saying at the time: “It has been an extraordinary experience and, in many ways, extremely positive.
“I didn’t realise how many true friends I had.
“I feel so lucky and loved and thank everybody for all their good thoughts.”
The breast cancer came two years after Faithfull, a former smoker, was forced to cancel her European tour after collapsing backstage at a gig.
The singer was diagnosed with exhaustion and ordered to rest for three months.
In 2005, filmmaker Duncan Roy announced that Faithfull had stepped down from his screen version of The Picture Of Dorian Gray because she had suffered a heart attack, which she denied.
In April 2020, it was announced that the singer had been admitted to hospital after contracting Covid, she was discharged three weeks later.
Faithfull released her self-titled autobiography in 1994, and went on to work on two more books about her life.
In 2011, she was awarded the Commandeur Of The Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres, one of France’s highest cultural honours.
