Marianne Faithfull, Singer & Swinging Sixties Muse, Dies at Age 78

British singer, actress, and style icon Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78 of unreported causes, a spokesperson confirmed. Her multiple transformations in life—from a wide-eyed pop star to Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger’s girlfriend and muse, to a heroin addict, to a renowned cabaret and punk artist—have come to exemplify a particularly colorful period of 20th-century cultural history.

Born in London in 1946, Faithfull’s father was a British spy during World War II and a literature professor at the University of London. Her mother, an Austrian baroness and ex-ballet dancer, was the descendant of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of the 1870 novel Venus in Furs that inspired the term masochism (and later, the Velvet Underground song).

Faithfull was 17 years old and an aspiring folk singer when she was ‘discovered’ by record producer and Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham at a Stones launch party. Her first single, 1964’s “As Tears Go By,” was co-written by Oldham, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger and made her a breakout pop star. More success followed with her debut studio album, 1965’s Marianne Faithfull. She had three more top ten hits in 1965: “Come and Stay with Me,” “This Little Bird,” and “Summer Nights.”

Faithfull married artist John Dunbar in 1965 and together they had a son, Nicholas. She soon struck up a friendship with Italian-German actress Anita Pallenberg (who went on to have three children with Richards) and began spending time with the Stones. Faithfull left Dunbar for Jagger, with whom she had a highly publicized relationship, becoming a fixture of the British tabloid press—especially when she and the Stones were the target of a drug bust in 1967.

“My absolute Waterloo,” Faithfull told W Magazine in 2014 of the infamous arrest, which was covered relentlessly by the press. “That spoiled the whole thing for me. The ’60s just turned to shit. I used to get hate mail. I read those articles, and I read those letters, and I believed what they said. I began to hate myself, and I began to hate God.”

Despite her association with the Stones—she’s credited with inspiring or co-writing classic songs like “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Wild Horses,” “Sister Morphine,” and “Sympathy for the Devil”—Faithfull was an artist in her own right, starring in the 1967 Orson Welles film I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname and making her stage debut in a London production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters that same year. She also starred in the stylish The Girl on a Motorcycle with Alain Delon, and played Ophelia in a film adaptation of Hamlet with Nicol Williamson.

The 1970s began as a difficult time for Faithfull, who became addicted to heroin and ended up living on the streets of London despite interventions from friends. She lost custody of her son for some of that time, and her relationship with Jagger ended. She largely remained out of the public eye, though in 1975, she released a well-received country-influenced album, Dreamin’ My Dreams.

In 1979, she married musician Ben Brierly, and the same year, she made a comeback with her most critically acclaimed album, the punk-infused Broken English. Her voice had been lowered a few octaves due to her drug and alcohol use, but it added to the vibe of the album, giving her a more punk rock sound. She didn’t get off drugs completely until 1985, after which Faithfull began a prolific period of recording and releasing music—collaborating with a wide array of artists (including Tom Waits, Beck, PJ Harvey, and Nick Cave) and working across genres (including cabaret, orchestra music, and rock). She was also beloved by the fashion set, working with or being friends with industry fixtures like Kate Moss, Stella McCartney, and Hedi Slimane. Her last album, She Walks in Beauty, was released in 2021.

“Nobody expected me to do it,” she told W. “Walking away, going, ‘Ha!’ I developed a voice and was able to say all the things I really wanted to say.”