Home > Marlene Dietrich

Born in Schöneberg, Berlin, Dietrich played the violin before joining an acting school in 1921, making her film debut the following year. After playing in only German movies at first, she got her first role in the 1st European talking picture, The Blue Angel(1930; directed by Joseph von Sternberg) and then moved to Hollywood to make Morocco (for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress), after her role in the German movie The Blue Angel.

Her most lasting contribution to film history was as the star in several films directed by Josef von Sternberg in the early 1930s, such as The Scarlet Empress and Shanghai ExpressShanghai Express is a 1932 movie starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong and Warner Oland. It was written by Jules Furthman and Harry Hervey, and was directed by Josef von Sternberg. The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Pic, in which she played " femme fataleMata Hari, exotic dancer and convicted spy, made her name synonymous with femme fatale during WWI. When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better. Mae West A femme fatale is a stock character, a villainous woman who uses the malign power of sexs". She gradually broadened her repertoire in roles such as Destry Rides AgainJames Stewart and Marlene Dietrich Destry Rides Again is a 1939 western film directed by George Marshall, starring James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey and Una Merkel. Stewart plays th, A Foreign Affair , Witness for the ProsecutionWitness for the Prosecution is a 1957 film that tells the story of Sir Wilfred, a master criminal barrister who takes the case of a man on trial for murder. While he expects that the defendant's wife will stand up for him in court, she unexpectedly agrees, Touch of EvilTouch of Evil ( 1958), was one of the last and one of the greatest examples of film noir ever made. It was directed by Orson Welles, who also appeared as a strangely corrupt policeman, Captain Hank Quinlan. The black-and-white film also features Charlton, and Judgment at NurembergJudgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 film which gives a fictionalized account of the post- World War II Nuremberg Trials. It stars Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Spencer Tracy, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Werner Klemp.

Dietrich sang in several of her films (most famously in von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, in which she sings "Falling In Love Again"), having made records in Germany in the 1920sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Events and trends Technology John Logie Baird invents the first working t. Following a slowdown in her film career, she made a number of records first for Decca, Elektrola, EMI, and for Columbia.

From the 1950s to the mid-1970s Dietrich toured internationally as a successful cabaret performer. Her repertoire included songs from her films as well as popular songs of the day. Until the mid-1960s her musical director was pop composer Burt Bacharach. His arrangements helped to disguise Dietrich's limited vocal range and allowed her to perform her songs to maximum dramatic effect. Spectacular costumes (by Jean Louis) and careful stage lighting helped to preserve Dietrich's glamorous image well into old age.

Her show business career largely ended, however, in 1974, when she broke her leg during a stage performance. She spent the last twelve years bed-ridden, in seclusion in her apartment in Paris.

Her distinctive voice was later satirized, by Lotte Lenya, in the song Lieder by cult British trio Fascinating Aïda. Madeline Kahn did the same in the Mel Brooks film " Blazing Saddles".

Dietrich was known to have a strong set of political convictions and a mind to speak them. She was a staunch anti- Nazi who despised Germany's anti-semitic policies of the time. She sang for the Allied troops on the front lines in Algiers, Fance and into Germany with Generals Gavin & Patton. Her singing helped here too, as she recorded a number of anti-Nazi records in German for the OSS.

Dietrich became an American citizen in 1937, raised a record number of War Bonds and entertained American troops during the Second World War. She is also famous for having recorded Lili Marleen during World War II, a curious example of a song transcending the hatreds of war.

Dietrich was a fashion icon to the top designers as well as a screen icon whom later stars would follow. Her public image and some of her movies included strong sexual undertones, including bisexuality. Accordingly, it is no surprise that she had affairs with women ( Mercedes de Acosta was among her lesbian lovers) as well as men.

Unlike her professional celebrity, which was carefully crafted and maintained, Dietrich's personal life was kept out of public view. She married once, to director's assistant (and later director at Paramount Pictures, France) Rudolf Sieber. Her only child, Maria, was born on Dec. 13, 1924. When Maria gave birth to a son in 1948, Dietrich was dubbed "the world's most glamorous grandmother." Although they never married, the great love of her life was the French actor and military hero, Jean Gabin.

Despite all of this, she was reportedly offered a king's ransom to return to Germany, due to her immense popularity as well as Hitler's ardour, which she declined. It is true that she quipped that she would return only when one of her Jewish friends (possibly Max Reinhardt) could accompany her.

Dietrich died peacefully at the age of 90 in Paris, of general old-age. A service was conducted at La Mageline in Paris before 3,500 mourners and a crowd of well-wishers ourside. Her body, covered with an American flag, was then returned to Berlin where she was interred in the Städtischen Friedhof III, Berlin-Schöneberg, Stubenrauchstraße 43-45. Cemetery.

In 1994 her memoralilia were sold to the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek (after US insitutions showed no interest) where it became the core of the now-famous FilmMuseum Berlin in the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.