Marianne Faithfull

In addition to her music career, Faithfull has had a career as an actress in theatre, television and film. Her first professional theatre appearance was in a 1967 stage adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in which she played Irina, co-starring with Glenda Jackson and Avril Elgar. The previous year, she played herself in Jean-Luc Godard's film Made in U.S.A.. Faithfull featured in the 1967 film I'll Never Forget What's'isname. In the French television film Anna, Faithfull sang Serge Gainsbourg's "Hier ou Demain". 1968 found a fetishist portrayal, a black leather-clad motorcyclist in the French film La Motocyclette (English titles: The Girl on a Motorcycle and Naked Under Leather), and 1969 Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising, her role Lilith. In London 1969 at the Round House, Faithfull played Ophelia in Hamlet, later filmed as Hamlet. Her stage work included Edward Bond's Early Morning at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in which she played a lesbian Florence Nightingale; The Collector at St Martin's Theatre in the West End; Mad Dog at Hampstead Theatre; A Patriot for Me by John Osborne, at the Palace Theatre; and the role of Lizzie Curry in N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker, which toured the UK. Other film roles in the 1970s included Sophy Kwykwer in Stephen Weeks's Ghost Story (AKA Madhouse Mansion); and Helen Rochefort in Assault on Agathon. Her television acting in the late 1960s and early 1970s included The Door of Opportunity (1970), adapted from W. Somerset Maugham's story, followed by August Strindberg's The Stronger (1971), and Terrible Jim Fitch (1971) by James Leo Herlihy. In 1991, she played the role of Pirate Jenny in The Threepenny Opera at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. Later she performed Kurt Weill's "The Seven Deadly Sins" with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, a CD of which was released in 1998. She has played both God and the Devil. She appeared as God in two guest appearances in the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. In 2004 and 2005, she played the Devil in William Burroughs' and Tom Waits' musical The Black Rider, directed by Robert Wilson, which opened at London's Barbican Theatre. In 2001, Faithfull appeared in C.S. Leigh's Far From China. She has appeared in Patrice Chéreau's Intimacy (2001), and in 2004, in Jose Hayot's Nord-Plage. Faithfull appeared as Empress Maria Theresa in Sofia Coppola's 2006 biopic Marie Antoinette. She starred in the film Irina Palm, released at the Berlinale film festival in 2007. Faithfull plays the central role of Maggie, a 60-year-old widow who becomes a sex worker to pay for medical treatment for her ill grandson. Faithfull lent her voice to the 2008 film Evil Calls: The Raven, but it was recorded several years earlier when the project was titled Alone in the Dark. She has appeared in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan on Brion Gysin and the dreamachine, titled FLicKeR. In 2008, Faithfull toured readings of Shakespeare's sonnets, drawing on the "Dark Lady" sequence. Her accompanist was the cellist Vincent Ségal. In 2011 and 2012, Faithfull had supporting roles in the films Faces in the Crowd and Belle du Seigneur. Faithfull starred in a production of Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins at Landestheater Linz, Austria. The production ran from October 2012 to January 2013. On 18 September 2013, Faithfull was featured in the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing her family's roots, in particular her mother's side of the family in pre-World War II Austria.