“It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” read a statement shared with the BBC. “Marianne passed away peacefully today in London, in the company of her loving family. She will be deeply missed.”
The cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Faithfull was born in the Hampstead area of north London, the daughter of an Austrian aristocrat and a British intelligence officer. She began her career as a folk singer in the early 1960s. It was then that she met Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham, who offered the band “As Tears Go By,” a composition co-written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The ballad reached the top 10 in the UK in 1964, and on the Hot 100 it peaked at number 22.
“As Tears Go By” made Faithfull a star, and the following year she was followed by other hits: “Come and Stay With Me”, “This Little Bird” and “Summer Nights”, all of which reached the top 10 in the UK and the top 40 on the Hot 100.
Marianme Faithfull also became a fixture in the British tabloids, particularly after she began an affair with Jagger in 1966. Early the following year, she made headlines for being at the scene of a drug raid at the home of Richards, wearing only a fur rug at the time of her arrest.
She sang backing vocals on The Beatles’ #2 hit, “Yellow Submarine.”
And co-wrote the Rolling Stones’ classic drug ballad, “Sister Morphine.”
However, her drug addiction ended up consuming much of what should have been her best years.
Faithfull would make her comeback in 1979, with the new wave and pop-influenced album Broken English.
In 1987 she reinvented herself as a jazz and blues singer on her album Strange Weather.
She later accompanied Roger Waters’ 1990 tour and sang on Metallica’s 1997 single “The Memory Remains.”
(Her voice is heard at 1 minute 58 seconds)
Outside her recording career, Marianne Faithfull also had a successful acting career, appearing in theatre roles on stage, on television and in film.
For her starring role in 2007’s Irina Palm, as a 60-year-old widow who becomes a sex worker out of necessity, she was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress.
