Marianne Faithfull – a life in pictures

31 Jan 2025

The Guardian

The British pop icon, known for her work as a singer, songwriter and actor, has died aged 78. Her career spanned six decades

Marianne Faithfull posing for portraits in 1965

Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
With her first husband, John Dunbar, an artist and co-founder of the Indica gallery, in 1965

Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images
In Liverpool, 1965

Photograph: Terry Mealy/Mirrorpix
Performing on The Tom Jones Show in 1966

Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock
With the director Jean-Luc Godard and actor Anna Karina on set in Paris in 1966 during the filming of the French crime comedy film Made in USA. Marianne plays herself as a singer in a cafe. The song she sings is As Tears Go By

Photograph: Reporters Associes/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
Backstage with her boyfriend Mick Jagger after her first night performance as Irina in Chekhov’s Three Sisters at the Royal Court theatre in London in April, 1967

Photograph: C Maher/Getty Images
In 1967

Photograph: Marc Sharratt/Shutterstock
With the director Michael Winner on the set of the 1967 film I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname

Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Marianne Faithfull in the mid 1960s

Photograph: Terry O’Neill/Iconic Images
Filming The Girl on a Motorcycle in 1967

Photograph: Bill Zygmant/Shutterstock
Faithfull leaving court in June 1967 when her boyfriend, Jagger, was sentenced to three months in jail on narcotics charges. The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was sentenced to a year in prison

Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
With her co-star Alain Delon in the 1968 film The Girl on a Motorcycle, directed by Jack Cardiff

Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy
Arriving at court with Mick Jagger in 1969 to face charges of possessing marijuana. The couple were arrested during a police raid at Jagger’s Cheyne Walk home in London

Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
As Ophelia in the 1969 film adaptation of Hamlet with Nicol Williamson in the lead role

Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
With her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso, at their cottage in 1970

Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
Pictured with her son Nicholas, at home in Aldworth, Berkshire in 1971

Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
Wearing a dress by the British designer Ossie Clark in 1973

Photograph: David Redfern/Redferns
With David Bowie at a live recording of The 1980 Floor Show for the NBC Midnight Special TV show, at the Marquee club in London in October 1973

Photograph: Jack Kay/Getty Images
At her wedding to Ben Brierly, a punk musician from the band the Vibrators in 1979

Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
The cover of the 1979 album Broken English. The picture was taken by the British photographer Dennis Morris

Photograph: Vinyls/Alamy
At the Dorchester hotel in London in 1980

Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Performing at the Dominion theatre in London in 1982

Photograph: David Corio/Redferns
On stage during Roger Waters’ concert version of The Wall in Berlin on 21 July 1990. The concert commemorated the fall of the Berlin Wall and a recording of it was released as the live album The Wall – Live in Berlin

Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images
In New York, 1994

Photograph: Bob Berg/Getty Images
With the British musician Johnny Marr performing on stage during the Here, There And Everywhere: a Concert For Linda tribute to Linda McCartney at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1999

Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images
With Jarvis Cocker of Pulp performing at the Barbican, London in 2002

Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images
At the Berlin international film festival in 2007

Photograph: MJ Kim/Getty Images
At her home in Paris in 2018

Photograph: Yann Orhan
In 2020

Photograph: Rosie Matheson