By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-30 22:51:13 | Updated at 2025-01-31 02:32:20
3 hours ago
Marianne Faithfull, the wild woman of London’s Swinging ’60s who survived drug addiction, homelessness, two comas, cancer and Covid-19, died at age 78, after a singing career that began as a teenager and lasted until her 70s.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” her spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.
“Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”
The convent-educated daughter of a World War II British intelligence officer, Faithfull had a front-row seat as drugs, alcohol and sexual excess enveloped the early years of the rock music industry.
Her slow, haunting voice in her first hit, “As Tears Go By”, in 1964 seemed to portend a darker side to the British pop sound that was winning hearts around the world with the breezy early tunes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
The former girlfriend of Mick Jagger, Faithfull became addicted to heroin and suffered from anorexia when the relationship ended, spending two years living on the streets of London’s Soho district in the early 1970s.
