SHE is often referred to as “the sixth Rolling Stone” – but Anita Pallenberg was so much more than that.

The actress, model and muse, who died on Tuesday aged 73, was the inspirational driving force behind the band in their iconic, rock ’n’ roll heyday.

20 Anita Pallenberg has died at the age of 73

Wild, witty, stunning, sexy — and with a unique flair for fashion which Jagger and Richards copied — her qualities, combined with their musical talents, created a perfect storm.

Well-connected and well-educated, Anita terrified and beguiled the rock ’n’ rollers in equal measure.

Her one-time partner Keith Richards, with whom she had three children, once said of her: “She scared the pants off me.” The Stones guitarist, 73, was last night said to be “devastated” by her death.

Certainly, Anita was one of a kind.

20 Anita with former husband and Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards Credit: Rex Features

20 Anita pictured here with Mick Jagger was known as 'the sixth Rolling Stone' Credit: Getty Images

20 Anita suffered from hepatitis C, and had had two hip surgeries, including a hip replacement Credit: Getty Images

20 The model and actress in a scene with Michele Breton Credit: Rex Features

While she bedded both Brian Jones and Keith, and was rumoured to have had an affair with Mick, it would be wrong to dismiss her as a groupie. As muse and critic she inspired their songs and even sang backing vocals for 1968’s Sympathy For The Devil.

Her opinion was so valued that Mick was said to have remixed tracks on the band’s 1968 album Beggars Banquet based on her feedback.

Addicted to drugs, obsessed with black magic and even implicated in the death of a teen lover, Anita had a knack for stirring things up.

Jo Bergman, the band’s personal assistant from 1967 to 1973, said at the time: “Anita is a Rolling Stone. She, Mick, Keith and Brian were the Rolling Stones. Her influence has been profound. She keeps things crazy.”

Born in German-occupied Rome in 1944, Anita was expelled from boarding school aged 16 and started modelling, moving from Italy to New York, there hanging out at artist Andy Warhol’s Factory, the place to be for arty types.

20 Anita and Keith has three children together - pictured here with son Marlon Credit: Getty Images

20 Anita Pallenberg was in a relationship with former Stones band leader Brian Jones Credit: Getty Images

20 Brian and Anita at a party during the Cannes Films Festival in 1967 two years before Brian's death Credit: Photoshot

In 1965, aged 21, she sneaked backstage at a Stones gig in Munich and offered the band some hash, which they declined — although guitarist Brian Jones was “kind enough” to invite her to his room.

It was the start of a stormy affair and a turning point for the Stones.

Her close friend Marianne Faithfull, Mick’s lover at the time, described how Anita brought a decadent shine to the group.

In her 1994 biography Faithfull, she said: “How Anita came to be with Brian 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 (gilded youth) . . .

“This transformed the Stones from pop stars into cultural icons.”

But her relationship with Brian turned violent. On holiday in Morocco in 1967, Keith saw Brian beating up Anita. He stepped in, took her to London with him and they stayed together for the next 13 years.

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20 Mick Jagger (left) Anita and Keith Richards arrive at London Airport in 1968 on the way to Brazil Credit: Getty Images

20 Baby Marlon with parents Keith and Anita Credit: Getty Images

20 Keith and Anita arrive at the 1968 premiere of the Beatles cartoon film Yellow Submarine Credit: AP:Associated Press

20 Anita with Keith at a concert in 1974 Credit: Getty Images

In Anita, hellraiser Keith had met his match. He once said of her: “She knew everything and she could say it in five languages.”

Her distinctive style — floppy hats, fur coats and lots of jewellery — became the Stones’ look, with Keith even wearing her clothes. She held court among the band’s friends and hangers-on.

Marianne described “wicked Anita” as “dazzling, beautiful, hypnotic and unsettling . . . Other women evaporated next to her”.

But as the Stones got bigger, Anita got bored and turned to acting. In 1968 she appeared in the film Barbarella with Jane Fonda, then with Marlon Brando in Candy.

Keith wrote in his 2010 autobiography, Life, that Brando “kidnapped her one night and read her poetry and, when that failed, tried to seduce Anita and me together”.

Despite this, when the couple’s first son was born the following year, they named him Marlon. Even more scandalous was Anita’s appearance with Mick in the 1970 film Performance, which sparked rumours of an affair, something she always denied.

It was at this time that she started using heroin to combat boredom. Anita explained: “Me and Marianne Faithfull were always left alone, as Keith and Mick were recording, and we were friends. We hung out together, taking drugs together.”

20 Before Anita's influence the 1964 version of The Rolling Stones were a blues style assemble Credit: Getty Images

20 Here they can be seen on stage at the Mod Ball in 1964 with Brian Jones (far left) in charge of the creative direction Credit: Getty Images

In the ensuing years both Anita and Keith spiralled further into heroin addiction and alcohol abuse.

Tragically, in 1976, their ten-week-old son Tara died in his cot. Keith’s mother took their daughter Dandelion Angela (who was born in 1972) into her care, while seven-year-old Marlon endured a chaotic upbringing on the road with the band.

Anita was also becoming increasingly fascinated by witchcraft. Tony Sanchez, bodyguard and drug dealer to the band, wrote in his 2010 book, Up And Down With The Rolling Stones: “She was obsessed with black magic and began to carry a string of garlic with her everywhere — even to bed — to ward off vampires . . . She warned me never to interrupt her when she was working on a spell.”

Sanchez claims another of her hobbies was the “corruption of innocents”. He described how Anita “had a penchant for offering cocaine to the giggly, naive maids and nannies”.

He also says Anita’s 15-year-old neighbour Steve Levoie claimed to have been invited to orgies by her.

20 After Brian Jones left the group Mick Taylor joined as a guitarist - pictured here with Mick Jagger just before Jones' death Credit: Getty Images

20 (Left to right) Charlie Watts, Mick Taylor, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Bill Wyman at a press call at the Serpentine in Hyde Park in 1969 Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

20 Anita was a muse for the Stones' new creative direction influencing Mick Jagger ,seen here performing in Hyde Park in 1969 Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Levoie reportedly said: “The house was filthy and Anita was dirty herself . . . She had a lot of young boys who would come to the house all the time. She would ask for sex.”

Things came crashing down on February 27, 1977, when Anita and Keith got off a plane in Toronto, Canada, and were busted for possessing heroin. The judge gave them a choice — rehab or prison. Rehab worked for Keith but not for Anita, who endured one more terrible tragedy before getting clean.

In 1979, 17-year-old Scott Cantrell shot himself in the head at Anita and Keith’s mansion in New York.

Keith was away on tour and Scott, their groundsman, had become her lover. Anita was initially arrested for manslaughter amid claims they were playing Russian roulette, but his death was later ruled to be suicide.

She said of the tragedy: “I didn’t feel anything. That’s one of the wonders of drugs and drink.” Her relationship with Keith did not survive the incident and they split up in 1980. Asked how she felt, Anita said: “I was happy that I could score my own drugs. That’s the reality.”

It was 1987 before she got clean. She said: “(Drug addiction) is like the love of my life. It is a love affair I had to give up. I was on my own, my family did not want to see me.

20 The legacy has survived for decades with the iconic band still touring - Mick seen here performing in 2003 Credit: Reuters

20 The Stones perform in Havana, Cuba in 2016 Credit: EFE

20 (Left to right) Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ron Wood have created a legacy Anita inspired Credit: DPA - FROM PA

“I was disgusting, aggressive, a very hard drinker. I was morose, not a happy drunk. I wanted to live. I took care of myself. I went to AA meetings and all that.”

In 1994 she did a fashion degree at Central Saint Martins in London, but soon got disillusioned with the fashion world, confessing in 2008: “It’s too nasty, too rip-off, too hard.”

In her later years, Anita, whose stunning looks had faded, spent her time gardening and with her five grandchildren. She also had two hip operations — she began drinking again after the second to deal with the pain — and suffered from hepatitis C.

Anita considered writing a memoir but decided not to because the publishers “all wanted salacious”.

Last August she said: “I am ready to die. I have done so much here.”

The cause of death is yet to be confirmed, but there is no doubt Anita lived her life to the full.

She once described herself as: “A vagabond. An adventurer. I am not a person with one specific talent. I wish I was.”