Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (29 December 1946 – 30 January 2025) was an English singer and actress who achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her UK top 10 single "As Tears Go By".

Born in Hampstead, London, Faithfull began her career in 1964 after attending a party for the Rolling Stones, where she was discovered by the band's manager Andrew Loog Oldham.

In the subsequent decade her voice was altered by severe laryngitis and persistent drug abuse, which left her sounding permanently raspy, cracked and lower in pitch.

[citation needed] Her father, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, was a British intelligence officer and professor of Italian literature at Bedford College, London University.

[2] She had been a ballerina for the Max Reinhardt Company during her early years, and danced in productions of works by the German theatrical duo Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

[7] Regarding her roots in the Austrian nobility, Faithfull appeared on the British television series Who Do You Think You Are?, which discussed that the title used by family members was Ritter von Sacher-Masoch.

[9] Marianne spent part of her early life in Braziers Park, Oxfordshire, at a commune formed by John Norman Glaister in which Faithfull's father played an instrumental role.

In an interview 27 years later with A.M. Homes for Details, Faithfull discussed her wilder days and admitted that the drug bust fur rug incident had ravaged her personal life: "It destroyed me.

[18][better source needed] In 1968, Faithfull, by now addicted to cocaine, gave birth to a stillborn daughter (whom she had named Corrina) while returning from Jagger's country house in Ireland.

"Sympathy for the Devil", featured on the 1968 album Beggars Banquet, was partially inspired by The Master and Margarita, written by Mikhail Bulgakov, a book that Faithfull introduced to Jagger.

In her autobiography, Faithfull said Jagger and Richards released it in their own names so that her agent would not collect all the royalties and proceeds from the song, especially as she was homeless and addicted to heroin at the time.

[1] Partially influenced by the punk explosion and her marriage to Brierly in the same year, it ranged from the punk-pop sounds of the title track, which addressed terrorism in Europe (and was dedicated to Ulrike Meinhof), to the punk-reggae rhythms of "Why D'Ya Do It?

While living at a hotel in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, Faithfull started an affair (while still married to Brierly) with a dual diagnosis (mentally ill and drug dependent) man, Howard Tose, who later committed suicide by jumping from a 14th floor window of the flat they shared.

The work included tunes first made notable by such blues luminaries as Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith; Tom Waits wrote the title track.

[1] When Roger Waters assembled an all-star cast of musicians to perform the rock opera The Wall live in Berlin in July 1990, Faithfull played the part of Pink's overprotective mother.

Alanna Nash of Stereo Review commended the musicians whom Faithfull had chosen to back her: Longtime guitarist Reynolds was joined by former Band member Garth Hudson and pianist Dr. John.

Nash was impressed with the album's autobiographical tone, noting that "Faithfull's gritty alto is a cracked and halting rasp, the voice of a woman who's been to hell and back on the excursion fare which, of course, she has."

She extolled Faithfull as "one of the most challenging and artful of women artists," and Rolling Stone writer Fred Goodman asserted: "Blazing Away is a fine retrospective – proof that we can still expect great things from this greying, jaded contessa.

A hugely successful concert and cabaret tour, accompanied by pianist Paul Trueblood, culminated in the filming at the Montreal Jazz Festival of the DVD Marianne Faithfull Sings Kurt Weill.

[32] Faithfull released several albums from the late 1990s into the 2000s that received positive critical response, beginning with Vagabond Ways (1999), which was produced and recorded by Mark Howard.

Vagabond Ways included collaborations with Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, and writer and friend Frank McGuinness.

The album contained songs written with Blur, Beck, Billy Corgan, Jarvis Cocker, Dave Stewart, David Courts and the French pop singer Étienne Daho.

In 2007, Faithfull collaborated with the British singer-songwriter Patrick Wolf on the duet "Magpie" from his third album The Magic Position, and wrote and recorded a new song for the French film Truands called "A Lean and Hungry Look" with Ulysse.

The show included the Harry Nilsson song "Don't Forget Me", "Marathon Kiss" from Vagabond Ways, and a version of the traditional "Spike Driver Blues".

[42] "Marianne's contribution to the arts over a 45-year career including 18 studio albums as a singer, songwriter and interpreter, and numerous appearances on stage and screen is now being acknowledged with this special award.

[50] On 22 June 2013, she made a sell-out concert appearance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with jazz musician Bill Frisell playing guitar, as a part of the Meltdown Festival curated by Yoko Ono.

Her other film roles during the 1970s included Sophy Kwykwer in Stephen Weeks's Ghost Story (AKA Madhouse Mansion); and Helen Rochefort in Assault on Agathon.

In 2004 and 2005, she played the Devil in William Burroughs' and Tom Waits' musical The Black Rider, directed by Robert Wilson, which opened at London's Barbican Theatre.

In September 2006, she again cancelled a concert tour, this time after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis[85][86] The following month, she underwent surgery in France, but required no further treatment as the tumour had been caught very early.

[3] On 27 May 2008, she posted the following on her MySpace page, with the headline "Tour Dates Cancelled" (and credited to FR Management, the company operated by her boyfriend/manager François Ravard): "Due to general mental, physical, and nervous exhaustion, doctors have ordered Marianne Faithfull to immediately cease all work activities and rehabilitate.