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Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich (sometimes
known as Maria Magdalena Dietrich) was born on
December 27, 1901, and was a Germany|German
actor|actress, entertainer and singer.

Born in Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany, Marlene
Dietrich played the violin before joining an
acting school in 1921, making her official film
debut the following year. After playing in only
German movies at first, she got her first role in
the 1st European talking picture, Der Blaue
Engel|The Blue Angel (1930, directed by Josef von
Sternberg, and then moved to Hollywood to make
Morocco (movie)|Morocco (for which she received
her only Oscar nomination.

Her most lasting contribution to film history was
as the star in several films directed by von
Sternberg in the pre-Code early 1930s, such as The
Scarlet Empress and Shanghai Express, in which she
played "femme fatales". She gradually broadened
her repertoire in Destry Rides Again, A Foreign
Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil
and Judgment at Nuremberg. 

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 1920s. Following a
slowdown in her film career, she made a number of
records first for Decca, Elektrola, EMI, and for
Columbia Records|Columbia. Her distinctive voice
was later satire|satirized, by Lotte Lenya, in the
song Lieder by cult United Kingdom|British trio
Fascinating Aïda. Madeline Kahn did the same in
the Mel Brooks classic 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-semitism|anti-semitic policies of the time.
She sang for the Allied troops on the front lines
in Algiers, France and into Germany with Generals
James M. Gavin and George S. Patton. Her singing
helped here too, as she recorded a number of
anti-Nazi records in German language|German for
the Office of Strategic Services|OSS.

Dietrich became an American citizen in 1937,
raised a record number of War Bonds and
entertained American troops during the World War
II|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.

Ironically, she never ever integrated into the
Hollywood entertainment industry, being always an
outsider for mainstream America. Her heavy German
accent gave an extra touch to her performance but
made her look "foreign" in the eyes of Americans. 

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,
Claudette Colbert, and allegedly Greta Garbo were
among her lesbian lovers) as well as many 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 Rudolf
Sieber, a Roman Catholic who later became a
director at Paramount Pictures in France. Her only
child, Maria Sieber (married name Maria Riva), was
born on December 13, 1924. When Maria Riva gave
birth to a son in 1948, Dietrich was dubbed "the
world's most glamorous grandmother." The great
love of the actress's life, however, was the
French actor and military hero Jean Gabin. As for
her husband, he had a tragically unstable longterm
mistress who looked a bit like and eventually
believed herself to be Dietrich.

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 (theatre
director)|Max Reinhardt) could accompany her.

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 famed 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), body-sculpting rubber undergarments,
careful stage lighting, and, reportedly, gruesome
mini-facelifts (achieved by weaving her hair into
tight braids, pinning them tightly to her scalp
with surgical needles, and then topping it all
with sexy wigs) helped to preserve Dietrich's
glamorous image well into old age. 

Her show business career largely ended in 1974,
when she broke her leg during a stage performance.
She spent her remaining 16 years mostly
bed-ridden, in seclusion in her apartment in
Paris. She was somewhat estranged from her
daughter, but got on well with her grandson, Peter
Riva. Her own husband, Rudolf Sieber, had died of
cancer on June 24, 1976.

Dietrich died peacefully on May 6, 1992 at the age
of 90 in Paris, of natural causes. A service was
conducted at La Madeline in Paris before 3,500
mourners and a crowd of well-wishers outside. Her
body, covered with an American flag, was then
returned to Berlin where she was interred in her
birthplace at the Städtischen Friedhof III,
Berlin-Schöneberg, Stubenrauchstraße 43-45.
:de:Friedenau Cemetery.

In 1994 her memorabilia were sold to the Stiftung
Deutsche Kinemathek (after US institutions showed
no interest) where it became the core of the Film
Museum Berlin in the Sony Center on Potsdamer
Platz, Berlin.

==Filmography==

*In Fortune's Shadow (1919)
*The Little Napoleon (1922)
*Love Tragedy (1923)
*Man by the Roadside (1923)
*The Monk from Santarem (1924)
*Leap Into Life (1924)
*Dance Fever (1925)
*Heads Up, Charley! (1926)
*The Imaginary Baron (1926)
*Manon Lescaut (1926)
*His Greatest Bluff (1927)
*A Modern DuBarry (1927)
*Cafe Electic (1927)
*Art of Love (1928)
*The Happy Mother (1928) (short subject)
*Dangers of the Engagement Period (1929)
*The Woman One Longs For (1929)
*I Kiss Your Hand, Madame (1929)
*The Ship of Lost Men (1929)
*The Blue Angel (1930)
*Morocco (1930)
*Dishonored (1931)
*Shanghai Express (1932)
*Blonde Venus (1932)
*The Song of Songs (1933)
*The Scarlet Empress (1934)
*The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935) (short
subject)
*The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
*I Loved a Soldier (1936) (unfinished)
*Desire (1936)
*The Garden of Allah (1936)
*Knight Without Armor (1937)
*Angel (1937)
*Destry Rides Again (1939)
*Seven Sinners (1940)
*The Flame of New Orleans (1941)
*Manpower (1941)
*The Lady Is Willing (1942)
*The Spoilers (1942)
*Pittsburgh (1942)
*Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
*Follow the Boys (1944)
*Kismet (1944)
*Martin Roumagnac (1946)
*Golden Earrings (1947)
*A Foreign Affair (1948)
*Jigsaw (1949) (cameo)
*Stage Fright (1950)
*No Highway in the Sky (1951)
*Rancho Notorious (1952)
*The Monte Carlo Story (1956)
*Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) (Cameo)
*Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
*That Does Not Come Back (1958)
*It Only Happened Once (1958)
*Touch of Evil (1958)
*Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
*Black Fox: The True Story of Adolf Hitler (1962)
(documentary) (narrator)
*Paris - When It Sizzles (1964) (Cameo)
*Triumph Over Violence (1965) (documentary)
(narrator)
*Just a Gigolo (1979)
*Marlene (1984) (documentary) (Dietrich insisted
to director Maximilian Schell that her voice only
be heard)

==External links==
* http://www.marlene.com/ Official site
* imdb name|name=Marlene Dietrich|id=0000017