Marianne Faithfull

Singer, songwriter, actress. Born on December 29, 1946, in London, England. Starting out as a singer when she was in her teens in 1960s, Marianne Faithfull has remained an inventive and original performer, despite many personal and professional highs and lows during her long career. The daughter of an Austro-Hungarian baroness and a former British intelligence officer, she spent some of her early years at a communal farm established by her father. Her parents later split and Faithfull went with her mother to live in Reading.

Educated at a convent, she met Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones manager, at a party in 1964 while she was still in school. He produced her first hit, "As Tears Go By," which he helped to write, along with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. The song made a strong showing on both the British and American charts.