Rolling Stones stars have paid tribute to legendary English singer and actress Marianne Faithfull after her death at the age of 78. Faithfull is best known for songs including her top 10 hit As Tears Go By in 1964, and was considered a key female figure in the British Invasion of the American charts that decade. The star was considered a muse to the Stones, after famously beginning her career when she was discovered at a party for the rock group held in 1964.

She was also in a much reported-on relationship with singer and frontman Sir Mick Jagger from 1966 until 1970. ‘It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,’ her spokesperson shared in a statement, as per the BBC. ‘Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. ‘She will be dearly missed.’. Sir Mick Jagger paid tribute to his ex-partner Faithfull as ‘a wonderful friend’ in a post on social media.

‘I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull,’ he wrote. ‘She was so much part of my life for so long. She was a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress. She will always be remembered.’. His bandmate Keith Richards also shared his sorrow following her death. ‘My heartfelt condolences to Marianne’s family! I’m so sad and will miss her!! Love, Keith,’ he wrote in a statement on X.

Richards also posted a photograph of the two of them toasting a drink together. It was Sir Mick and bandmate Keith Richards who penned her defining tune, As Tears Go By, alongside their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. The following year, in 1965, she released two albums simultaneously – her self-titled debut and Come My Way. Other hits for Faithfull during that period include This Little Bird and Come and Stay with Me.

She was also said to have inspired the Stones classics Sympathy for the Devil, You Can’t Always Get What You Want and Wild Horses. Faithfull also enjoyed success as a film actress beginning that decade, with appearances in movies including I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967) and The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968). Personal problems overshadowed her career during the 1970s, with the star experiencing homelessness and struggling with anorexia and drug addiction.

Alongside severe laryngitis, her voice was altered from its higher-registered placement to become raspier and lower in pitch. In 1979, she made a musical comeback with album Broken English, which earned her a Grammy nomination. She stayed active in the following decades, recording and releasing more music, as well as performing and writing three memoirs, and collaborating with the likes of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey.

Her final album – her 22nd – was a spoken-word one, She Walks in Beauty, and her final acting parts were voice roles in 2021 blockbuster Dune, as a Bene Gesserit Ancestor, and narrating the 2023 short film Wild Summer, which played at Cannes Film Festival. Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards, and in 2011 was made Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France – one of the country’s highest cultural honours.

Faithfull continued to struggle with her health over the years, including battling breast cancer, emphysema and hepatitis C. In 2020, she contracted Covid-19 and doctors did not expect her to survive. While she rallied somewhat and continued to work, in March 2022 it was reported that she had moved into a care home. Married three times, Faithfull shared journalist son Nicholas Dunbar, who survives her, with her first husband, John Dunbar.

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