Musical legends have paid tribute to singer, actress and 1960s icon Marianne Faithfull, who has died at the age of 78.
A statement from the singer’s family announcing her death on Thursday said: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull.
“Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”
Born in Hampstead in 1946, Faithfull began her singing career in 1964, after being discovered by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham at a party for the band.
In 1965, she released her self-titled debut album, featuring As Tears Go By, written by Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, which hit number nine in the singles chart, and Come And Stay With Me, which got to number four.
Faithfull also acted in films, including 1968’s The Girl on a Motorcycle, and theatre productions.
Her stardom made her an icon of 1960s “Swinging London” and she was often described as a muse for the Rolling Stones.
She reportedly told Jagger: “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” which would go on to inspire the hit song Wild Horses in 1970.
“I know they used me as a muse,” she once said, adding: “I knew I was being used, but it was for a worthy cause.”
The Rolling Stones front man paid tribute to Faithfull as “a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress” in a post on social media, writing: “I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull.
“She was so much part of my life for so long,” he said, adding: “She will always be remembered.”
Sir Mick, 81, was joined by bandmates Ronnie Wood and Richards in paying tribute to Faithfull, whose version of As Tears Go By reached number nine in the UK singles chart.
Richards said he was “so sad”. “My heartfelt condolences to Marianne’s family. I’m so sad and will miss her,” he said.
Wood, who joined the Stones first as a touring member in 1975, five years after Faithfull and Sir Mick’s split, posted a picture of him and Richards in the studio with her to Instagram alongside the caption: “Farewell dear Marianne.”
Alongside her successful showbiz career, Faithfull had a highly publicised romantic relationship with Jagger in the late 1960s, after the rock star’s relationship with actress Chrissie Shrimpton ended.
She was famously found wearing nothing except a rug at an infamous drug bust at Richards’s country house, Redlands, in 1967.
Following the breakdown of her relationship with Jagger, Faithful lost custody of her son and fell into heroin addiction.
Blur guitarist Graham Coxon shared a tribute of his own on his socials with a heartfelt thank you to the British legend for her impact on his life.
“You’re the only person that said the things I really needed to hear at a time when I really needed to hear them. You gave me the confidence/permission to ‘fly’ and to shake off self-consciousness/doubt – you told me I was beautiful when I felt ugly – 4eva in your debt,” the British singer-songwriter wrote.
The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess also shared his own memories of the songstress, writing: “Farewell Marianne Faithfull. I first heard Broken English on a school trip in 1980 and it blew my mind. She was such a free spirit and true talent.
“We met in Amsterdam in 1994 and spent an afternoon chatting and in between interviews – going to listen to Why D’Ya Do it, right now.”
After years of battling drug abuse, homelessness and anorexia, she returned to release an album in 1979, Broken English. Rated a classic example of a sucessful comeback record, she received widespread critical acclaim and earned her first Grammy Award nomination.
In 1987 she reinvented herself as a jazz and blues singer, with the critically acclaimed Strange Weather, and in the same decade went into rehab.
Recently she had enjoyed a resurgence and was said to be admired by the likes of Kate Moss and Courtney Love.
Faithfull’s final album was an experimental collaboration with Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ Australian multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, called She Walks In Beauty.
Cave also paid tribute, saying “the stored knowledge of a generation” had been lost following Faithfull’s death, describing her as “a wild woman, bold, brilliant and beautiful”.
“We have lost not just a fiercely unique talent, but the stored knowledge of a generation,” he said in a statement. “Through her extraordinary, defiant and lived in voice, Marianne brought her own maverick truth to every song she sang, and every story she spoke. We loved her very much.”
The daughter of a British military officer and an Austro-Hungarian Jewish baroness, Faithfull appeared in Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette. She was descended from Austrian nobility with her great-great-uncle Leopold von Sacher-Masoch writing the erotic novel Venus in Furs.
She made guest star appearances as God in the TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards, and was made a commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
She was married and divorced three times – to artist John Dunbar, Ben Brierly of punk band the Vibrators, and actor Giorgio Della Terza. She is survived by her son, Nicholas Dunbar.
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