Marianne Faithfull Dies: Singer, Actor And Rolling Stones Muse Was 78​on January 30, 2025 at 6:31 pm

Marianne Faithfull, who during the Swinging ’60s in London built a career as a singer, songwriter, actor and a muse to such other stars as the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, died today in London. She was 78. Her death was reported to the BBC by a spokesperson. “It is with deep sadness that we […]Marianne Faithfull, who during the Swinging ’60s in London built a career as a singer, songwriter, actor and a muse to such other stars as the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, died today in London. She was 78. Her death was reported to the BBC by a spokesperson. “It is with deep sadness that we   

Marianne Faithfull, who during the Swinging ’60s in London built a career as a singer, songwriter, actor and a muse to such other stars as the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, died today in London. She was 78.

Her death was reported to the BBC by a spokesperson.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” a statement said. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London, on December 29, 1946, to father Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, a British intelligence officer and professor at Bedford College of London University and mother Eva, the daughter of an Austro-Hungarian nobleman. With the beauty of a model and an aristocratic bearing, Faithfull was on 18 (some reports say 17) when she attended a party for the Rolling Stones and was discovered by the band’s manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Her debut album was released the following year.

That self-titled was a commercial success, especially in the U.K., and included the hit that became her signature song: the sweetly sung “As Tears Go By,” written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Oldham.

Soon becoming one of the most photographed faces of Mod London, Faithfull embarked on a four-year romance with Jagger, recording numerous songs, appearing in movies (The Girl on a Motorcycle in 1968, Hamlet in 1969)

It was during her years both with and after Jagger that Faithfull developed the heroin and prescription drug habit that would plague her for decades. By the end of the 1970s, though Faithfull was putting her damaged vocals to use: She released the 1979 album Broken English, which featured her new image as a world-weary, whisky-soaked chanteuse. Americans were stunned by her 1980 performance on Saturday Night Live, during which she sang the title track from Broken English in a cracking, battered yet somehow mesmerizing voice.

The album earned Faithfull a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and has built a devoted following over the years, not to mention a later-in-life career as a cabaret performer in such hot spots as New York’s Rainbow Room and Carnegie Hall.

Faithfull made the UK Top 10 four times, starting in 1964 with “As Tears Go By,” which was her biggest Stateside single, reaching No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Rolling Stones’ version of the song made the Top 10 on both sides of the pond in 1966.

She also hit in Britain with the singles “Come and Stay with Me,” “This Little Bird” and “Summer Nights,” all in 1965, and scored a pair of Top 15 LPs that year. Those four songs also made the U.S. Top 40.
In all, Faithfull had 10 albums make the UK chart, from her eponymous 1965 debut through 2018’s Negative Capability. Eight would make the Billboard 200 in the U.S., led by Marianne Faithfull, which reached No. 12.