Entertainment
Marianne Faithfull, rock ’n' roll chanteuse and Rolling Stones muse, dies at 78
Marianne Faithfull, the singer, actress, steely-eyed “It” girl of Swinging ‘60s London and subject of numerous Rolling Stones songs including “Wild Horses” and “Sister Morphine,” opened her 1994 autobiography with a disclaimer: “Never apologize, never explain — didn’t we always say that? Well, I haven’t and I don’t.”
Faithfull, who once described herself as “the drug-drenched Duchy of Chelsea,” died peacefully in London on Thursday accompanied by her family, a spokesperson confirmed to The Times. She was 78 and previously had been suffering from the long-term effects of a nearly fatal COVID-19 infection in 2020. A cause of death was not revealed.
“She will be dearly missed,” the spokesperson told The Times in a statement.
Faithfull’s unflinching songs, adaptations and roller-coaster life illustrated her unapologetic approach. Described by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness as “interesting … difficult and strange,” Faithfull was descended from Austro-Hungarian aristocrats and first earned fame in 1964, at age 17, with “As Tears Go By,” written by a young Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Across 50 years as an artist, she issued solo albums including 1979’s bracing comeback, “Broken English,” 1987’s Hal Willner-produced “Strange Weather” and 2018’s “Negative Capabilities” with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
Along the way, she channeled her cigarette-stained rasp to interpret the work of Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey, Neko Case, Dolly Parton, Morrissey and others.
An artistic force, Faithfull reinvented her musical style with each passing decade, eagerly embracing contemporary sounds and collaborators as engines for her distinctive alto, one that grew more menacing the older she got.
She was a soprano when she met her future boyfriend Jagger at a party in London also attended by Richards, Paul McCartney and Peter Asher. Scouted by Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham, Faithfull was in the recording studio with him, Jagger and Richards a few weeks later.
A regular in London’s gossip press of the 1960s, Faithfull was soon at the center of the thriving music and fashion scenes. She sang backing vocals on the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” and hung with Bob Dylan during his historic 1965 run of shows in England. In 1967, Faithfull was famously photographed draped in a fur rug during a drug bust at Richards’ estate.
With sharp wit, keen intellect and disarming beauty, Faithfull accessed rooms where millions of Beatles-loving teens longed to be. She wrote in her autobiography of hanging out with Dylan and the Beatles during their peak success: “Jesus, how could I have ever thought these scared little boys were gods?”
Her lineage may have prepared her for the bohemian life. Faithfull was born Dec. 29, 1946, to a mother, Eva, who was a baroness. She descended from a line that included Leopold Baron von Sacher Masoch, who coined the term “masochism” in his erotic book “Venus in Furs.”
Faithfull’s father worked as a spy for British intelligence and was “a truly obsessed eccentric,” she wrote in “Faithfull: An Autobiography.” That ran in the family too. Her paternal grandfather, a sexologist, invented a device called “the frigidity machine,” designed to “unlock the primal libidinal energy” and cure the world’s ills.
After the success of “As Tears Go By” (the Rolling Stones recorded their version a year later), Faithfull continued her recording career and, until 1970, her relationship with Jagger. She characterized those years in her autobiography as: “Desultory intellectual chitchat, drugs, hip aristocrats, languid dilettantes and high naughtiness. I knew I was on my path!”
Most traveled during the 1970s was the path that led to drugs. She described her years homeless and strung out succinctly: “I took the train to London and didn’t return home for years, except for the occasional bath,” she wrote. Anonymous and penniless, she didn’t have a phone or an address. “I was incredibly frail. I never ate. I lost my looks.”
Absent a record contract or musical support, she only made the news as the junkie ex-girlfriend or disgraced aristocrat.
Faithfull got clean in the mid-1970s and returned to upend expectations in 1979 with “Broken English.” Her voice lower from damaged vocal cords, too many cigarettes and other addictions, the album arrived shortly after the British punk explosion, but it wasn’t a punk album per se. It was just hard, unflinching, vulgar, honest.
In addition to the title track, Faithfull transformed John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” into a feminist anthem and drew wide-eyed attention for “Why’d You Do It,” a harsh, profanity-laden indictment directed at an unfaithful lover. The album earned Faithfull her only Grammy nomination, for female rock vocal performance.
“The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,” from “Broken English,” scored a memorable midnight drive through the desert in the 1991 movie “Thelma and Louise.” Rolling westbound, Susan Sarandon’s Louise plays the Shel Silverstein-penned song on the car stereo, and Faithfull sings of a desperate woman who, at the age of 37, realizes “she’d never ride / through Paris in a sports car/ with the warm wind in her hair” and decides to change the plot.
Though she never earned chart success in the United States, Faithfull was a critics’ darling throughout her career. Her 1987 album, “Strange Weather,” saw her interpreting Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It With Mine,” Leadbelly’s “I Ain’t Goin’ Down to the Well No More” and Dr. John’s “Hello Stranger.”
“Faithfull: An Autobiography” was published in 1994. The first of three memoirs, it recounts her trysts and escapades with humor, brashness and power, and remains an essential music memoir. She issued studio albums at an even pace across the last 25 years of her life, one every few years with a new round of songs and a voice just a little more ragged.
Rock legends Marianne Faithfull, right, with Courtney Love in London in 2021.
(Matthew Lloyd / For The Times)
For her 2008 album, “Easy Come, Easy Go,” Faithfull covered songs by Judee Sill, Randy Newman, Brian Eno and Merle Haggard. Her rendition of Morrissey’s “Dear God, Please Help Me” hits its climax when Faithfull bellows at full volume, “There are explosive kegs / Between my legs / Dear God, please help me.”
The musician had a long, successful career as an actor as well. She performed Chekhov at the Royal Court Theatre, Shakespeare at the Roundhouse and Brecht and Weill at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.
Most famously, Faithfull starred in “The Girl on the Motorcycle,” a sexually charged, LSD-inspired 1968 love story that became one of the first films to be given an X rating by the Motion Picture Assn. of America. She appeared as a vision in “Lucifer Rising,” a notorious 1972 cult film by Kenneth Anger, an experimental filmmaker in Los Angeles. In 2001, Faithfull played God in a memorable series of dream sequences in the British comedy “Absolutely Fabulous” (her longtime best friend, Anita Pallenberg, played the devil).
Faithfull was nominated as best actress at the 2007 European Film Awards for her role in “Irina Palm,” in which she stars as a grandmother who performs anonymous sexual favors to earn money for her grandson’s cancer treatment. In 2011, Faithfull was awarded Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s most esteemed cultural honors.
Her 2018 album, “Negative Capability” was typically adventurous. Teaming in a studio and living space with longtime Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, the album saw her write songs with artists including Cave, Ellis, British songwriter Ed Harcourt and producer Rob Ellis. She told the Guardian that it was “the most honest record I’ve ever made. There are no hidden corners.”
She added, “What a joy, hanging out with those wonderful men.” That, of course, was a setting in which she often found herself, whether she invited it or not.
“My main priority in my head was always my work. But then, of course, the men came,” she explained, “and it wasn’t really what I wanted, but I was too pretty to be left alone.”
In 2021, she released “She Walks in Beauty,” a haunting spoken-word recording of Lord Byron and other British Romantic poets, the backing music — ambient at times — provided by Ellis, Eno, Cave and Vincent Segal. It was her 21st and final album
In her final years Faithfull, who was married three times, had her share of challenges. She broke her back in a fall in 2013 and a year later broke her hip. She was hospitalized for three weeks during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 when she tested positive for COVID 19.
Faithfull is survived by a son, financial writer Nicholas Dunbar, and three grandchildren.
Entertainment
‘Children of Blood and Bone’ author won’t see film after feud with star Amandla Stenberg
Tomi Adeyemi, the author of the bestselling fantasy “Children of Blood and Bone,” isn’t planning to see the forthcoming film adaptation — even though she co-wrote it.
Over the weekend, the Nigerian American author posted a video on TikTok addressing fans who have been asking her the same question, “Why don’t you post about the adaptation of your first film adaptation anymore?”
“There is a reason I will not post anything about the adaptation of my work,” the author wrote in what appear to be screenshots of a group chat. “I have not seen the film, and I will not watch it.”
The adaptation of the first installment of Adeyemi’s “Legacy of Orïsha” fantasy trilogy is slated to hit theaters in January 2027. Gina Prince-Bythewood — who wrote and directed “Love & Basketball” and helmed “The Woman King” — is directing. The film stars Amandla Stenberg, Thuso Mbedu, Tosin Cole, Damson Idris, Cynthia Erivo, Lashana Lynch, Regina King, Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Viola Davis.
Alongside the screenshots of her comments in the group chat, she shared a February 2025 exchange with Stenberg that shows the author severing ties with the actor.
Adeyemi shared only her final message to Stenberg, which reads, “Do not ever use my name in an interview or video again. Do not text me. Do not call me.” That exchange is followed by a notification that she blocked Stenberg, who plays Princess Amari in the upcoming fantasy flick.
The message from Stenberg that preceded Adeyemi’s reply is not shown in full.
Stenberg, who played Rue in “Hunger Games,” Starr Carter in “The Hate U Give” and, recently, Verosha “Osha” Aniseya and Mae-ho “Mae” Aniseya in Disney’s “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte,” had been getting flack from readers of the series, who claimed colorism was an issue while casting the movie.
In February 2025, Stenberg posted a since-deleted nine-minute TikTok addressing the controversy and told followers that Adeyemi had given the actor her blessing when cast as the series’ princess.
“I am four months into training for ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ and I am getting my ass whooped,” Stenberg joked in the video, per BET.
“This year was mostly defined for me, honestly, by contending with what it felt like to receive racist death threats just for existing in the ‘Star Wars’ universe, and that was a really difficult thing for me to move through,” she continued. “But honestly, it feels so much more painful for me to feel like I’m at odds with my own community.”
Stenberg said that she considers her skin tone when navigating her career choices and would “never go after a role” she didn’t feel well suited for. “I know that colorism is an insidious system that relentlessly impacts every facet of entertainment.”
The actor continued that it was actually a meeting with the “Children of Blood and Bone” author that gave her the confidence to pursue the role.
“I had the opportunity to meet Tomi, the novelist, for the first time. … And she goes, ‘Amandla, I want you to know that when you were a little girl and you were cast as Rue in “The Hunger Games,” and people said that Rue’s death wouldn’t be as sad because you’re a Black girl — that inspired me to write this series so that Black girls like you and Black girls of all shades could have a story written about them,’” Stenberg said in the video. “We started crying, and I said to myself, ‘God wants me here.’”
Representatives for Stenberg, Adeyemi and Prince-Bythewood did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
Movie Reviews
‘Night Nurse’ Review: A Caretaker Explores Her Kink for Elder Abuse in the Year’s Strangest Erotic Thriller
There are any number of erotic thrillers in which rich old men are robbed blind and/or left for dead, but Georgia Bernstein’s admirably bizarre “Night Nurse” might be the first movie of its kind where elder abuse is the source — and possible subject— of its erotic thrills. If there are others, I’m not sure I want to know.
But this woozy debut feature doesn’t rely on its audience being turned on by the relationship between a nubile caretaker and her dementia-addled patient. Their psychosexual bond, meanwhile, hinges on cold-calling vulnerable old people under the guise of a grandchild in financial distress. (“I’m in trouble, nana, send me $10,000 or I’ll be left to rot in jail!” That sort of thing). With its slim wisp of a premise stretched into a Strickland-esque dreamscape that substitutes kink for conflict, the film itself hardly seems convinced by its own wrinkled lust — all desperate kisses and non-touching poses of subservience. More important to Bernstein is what that lust reveals about her characters’ deepest needs, specifically how their need to care and be cared for can be as easily perverted as any other form of desire.
As moody and weightless as the noir-accented score that blows through the movie like a curlicue gust of wind in an old cartoon (credit to musicians Sam Clapp and Steven Jackson), “Night Nurse” lacks the pulse required for its stray feelings to come alive. Still, the film ambiently taps into the latent eroticism of teasing out the distance between how you see yourself and who you really are. Bernstein plays with that distance like a telephone cord wrapped around her fingers, and Eleni — played by the excellent newcomer Cemre Paksoy, powerfully helpless — only frays even more as the receiver is brought near the hook. “Everything I did before today wasn’t me,” the nurse tells co-worker Mona (Eleonore Hendricks) after starting a new job at an Illinois retirement home. “It was somebody else.”
What she did before today remains unexplored (specifically, what she did to get herself fired from her last gig), but I’m guessing she’s probably changed less than she thought. There’s a faraway flicker in her eyes the moment she catches the vibe between Mona and Douglas (a ribald and elusive Bruce McKenzie), a white-haired seventysomething who shows early signs of dementia but still commands an undiminished sexual energy. “I’m not an invalid,” he coos as Mona bathes him in the tub, to which she replies, “yes, you are,” in a supplicant tone that hints at a rich history of power games between them.
Later that same night, Douglas will force Eleni to call a stranger, pretend that she’s their granddaughter, and ask for money — he’ll wrap the phone cord around the nurse’s body as she talks and shove her against the wall as they kiss. She’s into it. So into it that he has to clarify the terms of his whole deal: “If you’re looking for a pogo stick, I’m really not your guy.” But Eleni isn’t looking for anything to bounce on. She just wants to be needed, and maybe to need someone in return. Someone who will see her for who she really is and allow her the fantasy of pretending she isn’t being herself when she cons vulnerable strangers out of their money — when she exploits how enthralled those strangers are by the care they have for their loved ones.
“Night Nurse” doesn’t belabor the psychology, as Bernstein prefers to express her story through heavy-lidded suggestion. Somnambulating from the moment it starts, the film moves through a series of beautifully arranged poses that stretch their latent meaning thin across the surface (Lidia Nikonova’s cinematography lacquers every shot with a seductive dreaminess). We see Douglas smoking in a lawn chair with Mona and Eleni curled around his feet. Eleni riding in the backseat of a convertible as the wind blows through her curls. The full staff of nurses — all of them under Douglas’ sway — stumbling around his condo in a state of zonked out bliss as they roll on the prescription drugs they’ve stolen from the residents.
Once you’ve seen one shot of this movie, you’ve practically seen them all, at least until things escalate during a rushed and unsatisfying third act that forces Eleni into an honest confrontation with herself. People will do just about anything to feel needed — they’ll give whatever degree of care allows them to receive it in return. “Night Nurse” understands that desire, but remains far too numb to treat it.
Grade: C+
The Independent Film Company will relase “Night Nurse” in theaters on Friday, July 10.
Entertainment
Lucas Museum to give free annual passes to South L.A. neighbors, host community preview day
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is moving at light speed toward its Sept. 22 opening, announced Thursday that it will give free annual passes to its South L.A. neighbors living in the 90037 ZIP Code. The 300,000-square-foot, $1-billion museum located in Exposition Park will also host a special community preview day on Sept. 13, more than a week before the general public gets to step inside.
The 90037 ZIP Code has a population of more than 65,000 and is bordered roughly by the 110 Freeway to the west, Slauson Avenue to the south, Central Avenue to the east and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north. Residents can register for passes at lucasmuseum.org/lm37 and will be alerted in August when the program launches. Pass holders can reserve tickets for themselves and one guest.
Tickets for non-pass holders go on sale July 21. They cost $25 for adults and $21 for seniors. Kids 17 and under are free.
“Storytelling has the power to bring people together and create a sense of community,” said Lucas Museum Chief Executive Tracey Bates in a news release about the program. “Through LM37, we are inviting our South Los Angeles neighbors to make the museum part of their lives and take their own path of discovery through the art, programs and experiences that will help shape this new cultural hub for Los Angeles.”
The community preview day is designed to give local business owners, community partners, civic leaders and registered LM37 pass holders a sneak peak of the 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, as well as the expansive gardens with 11 acres of park space.
The opening programming, curated by co-founder George Lucas, features 20 inaugural exhibitions across more than 30 galleries, including one titled “Star Wars in Motion,” containing vehicle designs, high-speed racers, flying vessels, props, costumes and illustrations from the first six films in the beloved franchise.
More than 1,200 objects will be on display from Lucas’ personal collection of narrative art. Highlights include work by Norman Rockwell and Dorothea Lange, as well as a variety of manga, children’s book illustrations and comics.
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