Anita Pallenberg

Anita Pallenberg was an actress, artist, model, icon, iconoclast, "It Girl" of the late 60s, and muse and paramour to not one but two Rolling Stones. Born in Rome, Italy, Pallenberg's father, Arnold "Arnaldo" Pallenberg, was a German-Italian sales agent with an interest in the arts, while her mother, Paula Wiederhold, was a German secretary at the Italian embassy. While escaping the destruction of WWII, the family was separated, and Pallenberg did not meet her father until she was 3 years old. Her father would later send her to a German boarding school, so that she could learn the language. After getting expelled from the school at age 16, Pallenberg returned to Rome, where she fell in with the city's "Dolce Vita" fashion scene, before jetting over to New York City, where she became a fixture at Andy Warhol's Factory. From there, Pallenberg moved to Paris, where she began her modeling career in earnest, before settling in London, just in time for the mod fashion explosion. In 1965, while on assignment in Munich, she met Brian Jones, lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, and the pair embarked on a tumultuous, acid-fueled relationship. The LSD trips brought out a dark side in Jones, who began exhibiting violent and erratic behavior. Pallenberg ended the relationship in 1967, when Jones assaulted her during a trip to Morocco. During that doomed trip to Morocco, Pallenberg took refuge with Jones's bandmate, Keith Richards, who brought her back to England with him, and the two became a couple shortly thereafter. During this time, Pallenberg was beginning her acting career, appearing in such films as Jane Fonda's cheeky sci-fi adventure "Barbarella" (1968), Terry Southern's sex farce "Candy" (1969), Marco Ferreri's Italian crime drama "Dillinger Is Dead" (1969), and Nicolas Roeg's surrealist gangster film "Performance" (1970), alongside James Fox and Mick Jagger. Pallenberg and Richards soon had their first child, Marlon Leon Sundeep. Pallenberg and Richards also shared an unfortunate affinity for heroin, which reached its peak during the debauched French Riviera recording sessions for the Stones' opus "Exile on Main St." She and Richards' second child, Dandelion Angela, was born during the recording sessions, in 1972. Pallenberg and Richards' relationship began to deteriorate after this, partially from their drug addiction, but also because the Stones' relentless touring schedule left Pallenberg solely responsible for raising their children. In 1976, the couple suffered a major tragedy when their third child, son Tara Jo Jo Gunne, died of SIDS-related pneumonia ten weeks after his birth. The next year, she and Richards were arrested in Toronto for heroin possession; Pallenberg eventually took a plea deal, pleading guilty to marijuana possession and paying a fine. Richards, though, came very close to doing serious prison time, and the arrest scared him enough to finally kick heroin for good, though Pallenberg continued abusing the drug. In 1979, Pallenberg began an affair with Scott Cantrell, a 17-year-old groundskeeper who worked at the South Salem, NY house that she and Richards shared. While Richards was recording with he Stones in Paris, Cantrell shot and killed himself in Pallenberg's bed, using one of Richards' guns. Rumors abounded that Pallenberg and the young man had been playing Russian roulette, but the police later ruled Cantrell's death a suicide. This proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back; Pallenberg and Richards ended their relationship for good shortly thereafter, in 1980. Pallenberg spent most of the '80s and '90s detoxing and dealing with a number of health issues, including hepatitis C and two hip surgeries. In 1990, she earned a degree in fashion and textile from Central Saint Martins in London, though she decided not to return to her fashion career. She finally kicked drugs for good in 2000, but suffered a relapse with alcohol in 2004, following her second hip surgery. She also began acting in films again, including Harmony Korine's celebrity impersonator romance "Mister Lonely" (2007), and Abel Ferrara's loose John Cassavetes tribute "Go Go Tales" (2007). Pallenberg reunited with Ferrara for her final film appearance, the apocalyptic romance "4:44 Last Day on Earth" (2011). On June 13, 2017, Anita Pallenberg died in Chichester, West Sussex, UK, from complications due to hepatitis C. She was 75 years old.