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Marianne Faithfull Dies: Singer, Actor And Rolling Stones Muse Was 78

By Greg Evans

 Marianne Faithfull, who during the Swinging ’60s in London built a career as a singer, songwriter, actor and a muse to such other stars as the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, died today in London. She was 78.

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London, on December 29, 1946, to father Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, a British intelligence officer and professor at Bedford College of London University and mother Eva, the daughter of an Austro-Hungarian nobleman. With the beauty of a model and an aristocratic bearing, Faithfull was on 18 (some reports say 17) when she attended a party for the Rolling Stones and was discovered by the band’s manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Her debut album was released the following year.

That self-titled album was a commercial success, especially in the U.K., and included the hit that became her signature song: the sweetly sung “As Tears Go By,” written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Oldham. The Rolling Stones’ version of the song made the Top 10 on both sides of the pond a year later.

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