Marianne Faithfull, an actor and music icon of Britain’s swinging ‘60s, has died in London, aged 78.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” said a spokesperson from her music promotion company Republic Media, in a statement.
“Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”
Born in 1946, Faithful grew up in relative normality, in a terraced house in Reading. She was descended from Austrian nobility on her mother’s side.
After leaving for London in her teens, she met Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who asked Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to write her 1964 debut single As Tears Go By, which hit the UK Top 10.
She had three other Top 10 singles in 1965, which all went Top 40 in the US.
Faithfull was a celebrity before 17, homeless by her mid-20s and an inspiration to young artists in her early 30s, when her seventh studio album Broken English brought about raving reviews, and was critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated.
Beginning in the early years of the rock music industry, Faithfull released 21 solo albums, wrote three autobiographies and had a film acting career.
Her acting appearances included Jean-Luc Godard’s Made In U.S.A. and stage roles in Hamlet and Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
She would later appear in such films as Marie Antoinette and The Girl from Nagasaki, and the TV series Absolutely Fabulous, in which she was cast as God.
She was idolised by fans and fellow musicians, and was celebrated across the fashion and film worlds.
The former girlfriend of Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones, Faithfull was at the forefront of a music scene filled with drugs, sex and alcohol. She overcame drug addiction and suffered from anorexia after her relationship with Jagger ended, and spent two years living on the streets of London’s Soho district in the early 1970s.
Faithfull was married three times, and in recent years dated her manager, Francois Ravard.
I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull. She was so much part of my life for so long. She was a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress. She will always be remembered. pic.twitter.com/aFAu1TwNTO
— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) January 30, 2025
Despite a rollercoaster of events in a non-conventional lifestyle, Faithfull was defined by her ability to bounce back and create beautiful art.
In 2020, Faithfull caught Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic and went into a coma during a three-week stay at a London hospital. However, she recovered, and within a year, she finished the album she’d been working on before getting sick.
Called She Walks in Beauty, the album is a collection of Romantic-era poems read by her and set to music in collaboration with Warren Ellis of the Dirty Three and the Bad Seeds.
Faithfull is survived by her son, Nicholas Dunbar.