Tuesday, June 20, 2017

17 reasons Anita Pallenberg was the coolest girl in the world

Anita Pallenberg has died at 73 years old CREDIT: LARRY ELLIS /HULTON ARCHIVE

The news that model, muse and actress Anita Pallenberg passed away on Tuesday this week has been met with sadness the world over.

The beautiful star was best known as the unofficial sixth Rolling Stone and long term partner of Keith Richards - but will be remembered for so much more. Pallenberg was the woman who influenced the Stones' lyrics and inspired a new generation of 'it girls' and models, including Kate Moss and Alexa Chung.

We recount some of the reasons wild, messy-haired, rule-breaker was one of the coolest girls in the world....

1. She was a rebel

Pallenberg was expelled from boarding school age 16 in 1960 and ended up wafting around Rome, Paris and New York, spending time with Andy Warhol's Factory crowd.

Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg (1968) by Cecil Beaton CREDIT: CECIL BEATON

2. She snuck backstage

At a Rolling Stones concert in Munich, in 1965, and offered them hash - the first time she met the band.

3. She created the myth

In her 1994 autobiography, Faithfull, Marianne Faithfull confirms how instrumental Anita was in creating the Stones' myth: "How Anita came to be with Brian [Jones] is really the story of how the Stones became the Stones. She almost single-handedly engineered a cultural revolution in London by bringing together the Stones and the jeunesse dorée".

4. She wouldn't be tied down

A friend, muse and confidante, Pallenberg was linked romantically to guitarist Brian Jones, Keith Richards (who she had three children with) and Mick Jagger.

Marianne Faithfull and actress Anita Pallenberg at Heathrow Airport to fly to Tangiers with their Rolling Stones boyfriends, March 1967 CREDIT: DOVE/HULTON ARCHIVE

5. But was much more than a 'groupie'

Jagger was said to have remixed tracks on the band’s 1968 album Beggars Banquet around her input. Stones' songs Angie and You Got the Silver were written about her, and she did backing vocals for 1968 hit Sympathy for the Devil.

6. In fact...

Such was Pallenberg's influence on the band that she became known as the 'sixth Stone'. Jo Bergman, PA to the Stones said of her: 'Anita is a Rolling Stone. She, Mick, Keith and Brian were the Rolling Stones. Her influence has been profound. She keeps things crazy.'

7. She was incredibly bright

And fluent in five languages.

8. She was no pushover

While filming 1968's Candy with Marlon Brando, the actor kidnapped Pallenberg one night in an attempt to seduce her with poetry. Keith Richards wrote in Life, "when that failed, [he] tried to seduce Anita and me together”.

9. She was a fighter

Keith, who wrote in Life, his 2010 autobiography: “I like a high-spirited woman. And with Anita, you knew you were taking on a Valkyrie—she who decides who dies in battle.”

Anita Pallenberg with Keith Richards who was her partner for 12 years CREDIT: HULTON ARCHIVE

10. She wielded power

Keith Richards' former assistant described her with "tumbling blonde hair, beautiful feline eyes and a long, lithe body. She was also witty and intelligent' - also as the women who '"almost broke up the Rolling Stones".

11. She was open to new ideas

At one point, Pallenberg became fascinated by black magic and wore a string of garlic to bed to ward off vampires.

Anita Pallenberg, sixties icon CREDIT: MANGOLD

12. She was a style muse

Her messy blonde hair and dirty bangs became synonymous with I'm-with-the-band hedonism and rebellion.

13. She was witty

Singer Courtney Love once asked Pallenberg whether she would consider getting plastic surgery. She answered, “Darling, I was the most beautiful woman in seventeen countries. I like being ugly!”

14. She inspired the next generation

Pallenberg was a muse, and later close friend, of Kate Moss.

Model Kate Moss and actress Anita Pallenberg attend a private screening of classic film "Performance" in 2004 CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES EUROPE/ DAVE M. BENETT

15. She could laugh at herself

Remember her Absolutely Fabulous appearance as the devil, when Marianne Faithfull played God in Eddy's dream?

16. She was loyal

Pallenberg almost wrote a memoir then didn't because publishers wanted her to dish the dirt on her relationship with Jagger.

17. She loved the good life

In her later years, she retired to an allotment in Chiswick where she grew strawberries, artichokes, leeks, broad beans and enrolled in botanical drawing classes.

THE TELEGRAPH