What is Marianne Faithfull's Net Worth?
Marianne Faithfull is a British singer, songwriter, and actress who has a net worth of $15 million. Marianne Faithfull began performing folk music at coffeehouses in the mid-60s. She caught the attention of Andrew Loog Oldham at a Rolling Stones launch party. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Oldham subsequently wrote her first single, 1964's "As Tears Go By." It became the first of many chart successes. She saw great success throughout the 70s, but addiction issues started to take their toll. She made a comeback in the mid-80s, and then again in the early 90s. Marianne provided vocals on the 1997 Metallica song "The Memory Remains". She also appears in the song's music video. Since then, she has continued to release critically acclaimed albums.
Early Life and Education
Marianne Faithfull was born on December 29, 1946 in London, England to Eva, the daughter of an Austro-Hungarian nobleman, and Robert, a British intelligence officer and Italian literature professor. She is Jewish through her maternal grandmother. Faithfull grew up in Ormskirk, Lancashire while her father was completing his doctoral degree at Liverpool University. Her parents divorced when she was six, and she subsequently moved with her mother to Reading, Berkshire. There, Faithfull attended St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Convent School.
Music Career
Faithfull launched her music career in 1964 as a folk singer at coffee houses. Soon, she was participating in London's exploding music scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of John Dunbar and Andrew Loog Oldham. The latter was the producer and manager of the Rolling Stones, and with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, he wrote Faithfull's first major release, "As Tears Go By." Faithfull subsequently released a string of further singles, including "The Little Bird," "Summer Nights," and "Come and Stay With Me." The lattermost track opened her eponymous debut studio album, which came out in 1965. Meanwhile, Faithfull released the album "Come My Way" in the UK and "Go Away from My World" in the US. Her subsequent albums were 1966's "North Country Maid" and 1967's "Love in a Mist." Faithfull's music career suffered terribly in the early 1970s due to a confluence of personal struggles, including lost custody of her son, anorexia nervosa, and heroin addiction. She also had severe laryngitis, which contributed to the permanent changing of her voice. When she was able enough to make another album, Faithfull recorded the country-influenced "Dreamin' My Dreams," which came out in 1976.
Following years of substance abuse, homelessness, and other health struggles, Faithfull made a major comeback in 1979 with her album "Broken English." Influenced by rock, punk, reggae, and new wave sounds, the album was hugely acclaimed, and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. "Broken English" is widely considered to be Faithfull's masterpiece. After it, she released the albums "Dangerous Acquaintances," "A Child's Adventure," "Rich Kid Blues," and the lauded blues-inspired "Strange Weather." Kicking off the 1990s, Faithfull released the successful live album "Blazing Away." She went on to release such albums as "A Secret Life," "The Seven Deadly Sins," and "Vagabond Ways." Faithfull continued recording into the 21st century, with albums including "Kissin Time," "Easy Come, Easy Go," "Horses and High Heels," and "Negative Capability." She has also continued to tour internationally.
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Acting Career
On top of her music career, Faithfull has been prolific as an actor on both stage and screen. In 1966, she appeared in Jean-Luc Godard's film "Made in U.S.A." singing her hit song "As Tears Go By." The following year, she made her professional stage acting debut in a production of "Three Sisters" in London. Also that year, Faithfull appeared in the film "I'll Never Forget What's'isname," starring Oliver Reed and Orson Welles. She had a starring role herself in the 1968 erotic drama "The Girl on a Motorcycle," opposite Alain Delon. Faithfull subsequently played Ophelia in Tony Richardson's adaptation of "Hamlet." In the 1970s, she starred in the films "Ghost Story" and "Assault on Agathon," and appeared on stage in such plays as "Alice in Wonderland," "A Patriot for Me," "The Collector," "The Rainmaker," and "The Kingdom of Earth."
After a break from acting, Faithfull returned in the early 1990s to play Pirate Jenny in a Dublin production of "The Threepenny Opera." Over the course of the decade, she also appeared in such films as "When Pigs Fly," "Shopping," "Moondance," and "Crimetime," and played God in two episodes of the television sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous." At the dawn of the new millennium, Faithfull was in the film "Intimacy." In 2006, she portrayed Empress Maria Theresa in Sofia Coppola's historical drama "Marie Antoinette." Faithfull's other credits have included the films "Irina Palm," "Faces in the Crowd," and Denis Villeneuve's "Dune," in which she voices an ancestor of the Bene Gesserit.
Personal Life
Faithfull's personal life has been turbulent and heavily publicized, ever since she began dating Mick Jagger in 1966. She left her first husband, John Dunbar, whom she had married the previous year, in order to romance the Rolling Stones frontman. Faithfull and Jagger became fixtures of the Swinging London scene, and were heavily involved with drugs. Addicted to cocaine, Faithfull had a miscarriage in 1968. She ultimately separated from Jagger in 1970 after beginning an affair with Anglo-Irish nobleman Hon. William Westenra. That same year, she lost custody of her son Nicholas, whom she had with her first husband. This led to a suicide attempt, followed by years struggling with heroin addiction, anorexia, and homelessness. Faithfull later dated punk-rock singer Ben Brierly, whom she married in 1979. While married to him, she began an affair with Howard Tose, who later killed himself by jumping from their flat. Faithfull and Brierly eventually divorced in 1986. Two years later, Faithfull wed her third husband, writer and actor Giorgio Della Terza; they divorced in 1991.
Faithfull has struggled with various health problems in the 21st century. In 2006, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and successfully beat the disease. Faithfull has also dealt with various cases of physical and mental exhaustion – as well as injury – that have caused her to cancel tour dates.
