Marianne Faithful, British singer and actress whose hits included ‘As Tears Go By,’ dies at 78
Iconic singer and actor Marianne Faithfull, who provided one of the most prominent female voices of the British Invasion, died Thursday in London, her spokesperson said.
The “As Tears Go By” singer was 78.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” her rep said in a statement.
“Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”
The cause of her death wasn’t immediately disclosed.
In 2006, Faithfull revealed that she had breast cancer.
She said then that the cancer had been detected early and was confident she’d have many more years to come.
“I have absolute faith and confidence in my fantastic medical team, and of course, I will be well again, if not better than ever,” she said in 2006. “Next year’s tour, I want to assure fans, will be one big celebration.”
She ended up going back on the road and said her bout with cancer turned out to be “an extraordinary experience and, in many ways, extremely positive.”
“I didn’t realize how many true friends I had. I feel so lucky and loved and thank everybody for all their good thoughts,” she said in 2006.
Faithfull’s best-known song — “As Tears Go By,” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards — spent nine weeks on the Billboard charts in late 1964 and early 1965, peaking at No. 9.
One year later, the Rolling Stones released their own version of the song, which also spent nine weeks on the charts and peaked at No. 10.
Faithfull will always be linked to the Rolling Stones, through that song and her years-long relationship with Stones frontman Jagger.
“As Tears Go By” was her biggest hit, but Faithfull admitted she really didn’t grasp the meaning of the tune until decades after making it a chart topper.
“It’s a strange song to get a 17-year-old to sing. It’s all about a woman looking back on her youth, not participating, I couldn’t really feel it,” she said in 2009. ” But now I can really feel it and it’s very beautiful… I got to the right age where the woman in the song is.”
The prolific entertainer also enjoyed success on the big screen with credits for “The Girl on a Motorcycle” in 1968, “Hamlet” in 1969 and “I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname” in 1967.
Faithfull said she took pride in staying active and creating new art, no matter her age.
“I like to be involved in every time as it goes past,” Faithfull said in 2009. “I want to write a new script for myself.”
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was born on Dec. 29, 1946, in London and she attended a Catholic boarding school.
But she was always destined for a more rollicking life outside convent walls.
“Ever since my days at the convent my secret heroes had been decadents, aesthetes, doomed Romantics, mad Bohemians and opium-eaters,” she wrote in her 1994 book, “Faithfull: An Autobiography.”
The fast lane had more than its share of bumps for Faithfull who found herself homeless in London’s SoHo in the 1970s battling a heroin addiction.
Somehow, she pulled herself out of that sad, desperate state and even found a silver lining. She was nominated for a best female rock vocal Grammy for “Broken English” in 1979.
“For me, being a junkie was an admirable life,” she wrote in her autobiography. “It was total anonymity, something I hadn’t known since I was 17. As a street addict in London, I finally found it. I had no telephone, no address.”
She remained active in entertainment almost all the way to the end, doing voice work for the 2021 blockbuster “Dune: Part 1.”
