Jamie Lee Curtis pays tribute to Marianne Faithfull: “It’s a great loss”

1 February, 2025

Jamie Lee Curtis has paid tribute to Marianne Faithfull, following the news of her death at the age of 78.

On Thursday, (January 30), the iconic singer and actor’s representatives announced that she had “passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

Since the news was announced, tributes from across the entertainment world have been pouring in. Mick Jagger shared a personal message to his former partner, while Metallica described her as “fearless” and Morrissey said she “brought us all closer”. Sir Paul McCartney also shared a tribute, describing Faithfull as “beautiful and sweet”.

Now, Curtis has shared her own memory of the late artist. Taking to Instagram on Friday (January 31), Curtis shared a photo of Faithfull with Sinead O’Connor who died in 2023.

“This is the second time I’m posting this picture,” Curtis wrote. “The first was the day that Sinead died. I never printed it because Marianne’s eyes were closed, but then when Sinead died, I found the contact sheet and took a quick picture. I can’t access my photo file right now because of the fires and I’ve just heard that Marianne died today.

“She was a great friend of my friend John Boorman and was a fascinating artist and woman, and it’s a great loss,” she continued. “When I can get access to my photo files, I will find a better picture of her. We went to a music festival in Dublin in the countryside to hear Eminem and it’s a precious memory for me today.”

Damon Albarn is also among those sharing tributes, describing her as “lovely, beautiful, wonderful.”

Faithfull was a key figure in the ‘Swinging London’ arts and music scene in the ’60s, becoming one of the leading female artists during the British Invasion era. She is remembered for hits including ‘As Tears Go By’ and for her roles on stage and screen.

It was her association with The Rolling Stones, however, that drove her public profile to a significant extent. Having married the artist John Dunbar in 1965, with whom she had a son Nicholas, she left her husband for Jagger the following year, with whom she had a four-year relationship.

She is often considered to have been a “muse” for the band, and is thought to have inspired songs such as ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ and ‘Wild Horses’. She also co-wrote their song ‘Sister Morphine’, although she had to win the rights to be credited as a writer in a long legal battle years later.

In 2021, she spoke about how a near-fatal battle with COVID-19 had threatened to take away her ability to sing. She had been hospitalised in March 2020 and received 22 days of treatment, but said a year later that she was still feeling the effects.

A biopic of her life, titled Faithfull, has been in production since 2020 but has yet to be completed.

Elsewhere, fans have also been sharing footage from Faithfull’s final ever concert, which took place at Le Bataclan in Paris in 2016 and saw her playing a number of her best known songs, along with covers of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.

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