PARIS — Marianne Faithfull is in higher spirits than you might think. “On the whole, I’ve been pretty happy for years,” Faithfull muses over a glass of Coke Zero at the trendy Hôtel Costes in Paris.

Gretchen Wyler was a dancer and actress whose career spanned more than five decades. In the late 1960s she became an animal rights advocate who drew national attention to the plight of captive animals ...