Seventies 'It Girl' Anita Pallenberg Loved To Garden In Chiswick

The woman known as The Rolling Stones's muse had an allotment in W4

Anita Pallenberg (25 January 1942 – 13 June 2017), who has died aged 73, was an Italian-German actress and model as well as a style icon and "It Girl" of the 1960s and '70s. She was a well known figure amongst the allotment community in W4 as she maintained a plot in Chiswick for several years. She was also a keen botanical artist.

She told The Guardian in 2008, "I've got my allotment in Chiswick, this is the third year, and I go out there twice a week at least with another girl and it's fun. I grow vegetables – I'm a vegetarian; I've got strawberries, artichokes, leeks, broad beans."

Anita Pallenberg in 2013

Anita Pallenberg was the girlfriend of multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, and later, from 1967 to 1980, the partner of Stones guitarist Keith Richards, with whom she had three children. She first met the band in 1965 in Munich, where she was working on a modelling assignment, and before they had made it big. She was credited with being an influence over the rock band and Mick Jagger respected her opinion on music. She sang background vocals on 'Sympathy for the Devil'.

Anita had studied fashion at Central Saint Martins, but did not forge a career in that industry. She appeared in several films, including Barbarella.

With Jane Fonda in Barbarella

She was herself portrayed several times by other performers. Monet Mazur played a young Pallenberg in the film Stoned (2005), a biographical film about the last year of Brian Jones' life, while the NBC television show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006) included a story arc in which the character Harriet Hayes was hired to play Pallenberg in a film.

She died on 13 June 2017, aged 73. She is survived by her two children and five grandchildren.

June 17, 2017