Marlene Dietrich

Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich^[4] (/mɑːrˈleɪnə ˈdiːtrɪx/, German: [maʁˈleːnə ˈdiːtʁɪç] ^ⓘ; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992)^[5] was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s.^[6]

"Marie Dietrich" redirects here. For the German soprano, see Marie Dietrich (soprano). For the Black Midi song, see Cavalcade (Black Midi album).

Marlene Dietrich

Marie Magdalene Dietrich

27 December 1901

Berlin, Germany

6 May 1992(1992-05-06) (aged 90)

Paris, France

Städtischer Friedhof III, Berlin, Germany

Germany (until 1939)
United States^[1]^[2]^[3]

Actress
singer

1919–1984

Rudolf Sieber

(m. 1923; died 1976)

Maria Riva

J. Michael Riva (grandson)
Peter Riva (grandson)

In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich performed on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola Lola in Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international acclaim and a contract with Paramount Pictures. She starred in many Hollywood films, including six iconic roles directed by Sternberg: Morocco (1930) (her only Academy Award nomination), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus (both 1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Devil Is a Woman (1935). She successfully traded on her glamorous persona and exotic looks, and became one of the era's highest-paid actresses. Throughout World War II, she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she delivered notable performances in several post-war films, including Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958), and Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), she spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer.

Dietrich was known for her humanitarian efforts during World War II, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and even advocating their American citizenship. For her work on improving morale on the front lines during the war, she received several honors from the United States, France, Belgium, and Israel. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth greatest female screen legend of classic Hollywood cinema.^[7]

Political views[edit]

Dietrich endorsed Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968.^[116]

: The Legionnaire and the Lady with Clark Gable (1 August 1936)

Lux Radio Theater

Lux Radio Theater: Desire with Herbert Marshall (22 July 1937)

Lux Radio Theater: Song of Songs with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr (20 December 1937)

with Edgar Bergen and Don Ameche (2 June 1938)

The Chase and Sanborn Hour

Lux Radio Theater: Manpower with Edward G Robinson and George Raft (15 March 1942)

: Pittsburgh with John Wayne (12 April 1943)

The Gulf Screen Guild Theater

: Grand Hotel with Ray Milland (24 March 1948)

Theatre Guild on the Air

: Arabesque (29 June 1948)

Studio One

Theatre Guild on the Air: The Letter with Walter Pidgeon (3 October 1948)

: Madame Bovary with Claude Rains (8 October 1948)

Ford Radio Theater

: A Foreign Affair with Rosalind Russell and John Lund (5 March 1949)

Screen Director's Playhouse

: Anna Karenina (9 December 1949)^[131]

MGM Theatre of the Air

MGM Theatre of the Air: Camille (6 June 1950)

Lux Radio Theater: No Highway in the Sky with James Stewart (21 April 1952)

Screen Director's Playhouse: A Foreign Affair with Lucille Ball and John Lund (1 March 1951)

starring Tallulah Bankhead (2 October 1951)

The Big Show

Marlene Dietrich in conversation with J.W. Lambert and Carl Wildman recorded after her season at the , London, BBC radio, 12 August 1965 (a shorter version had been broadcast on 2 April).

Queen's Theatre

The Child, with Godfrey Kenton, radio play by Shirley Jenkins, produced by for the BBC on 18 August 1965

Richard Imison

Dietrich's appeal to save the was broadcast on BBC radio

Babelsberg Studio

List of German-speaking Academy Award winners and nominees

List of people from Berlin

Bach, Steven (1992). . William Morrow and Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-688-07119-6.

Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend

Bach, Steven (2011). Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend. University of Minnesota Press. 978-0-8166-7584-5.

ISBN

Chandler, Charlotte (2011). . Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-8835-4.

Marlene Dietrich, a personal biography

Gammel, Irene (2012). . Cultural and Social History. 9 (3): 369–390. doi:10.2752/147800412X13347542916620. S2CID 146585456.

"Lacing up the Gloves: Women, Boxing and Modernity"

McIntosh, Elizabeth P. (1998). . London: Dell. ISBN 978-0-440-23466-1.

Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS

Morley, Sheridan (1978). Marlene Dietrich. Sphere Books. 978-0-7221-6163-0.

ISBN

O'Connor, Patrick (1991). The Amazing Blonde Woman: Dietrich's Own Style. London: . ISBN 978-0-7475-1264-6.

Bloomsbury Publishing

Riva, Maria (1993). (1st ed.). Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-58692-2.

Marlene Dietrich

Riva, Maria (1994). . Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-38645-8.

Marlene Dietrich

Spoto, Donald (1992). . Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-42553-7.

Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich

Thomson, David (1975). A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema. London: Secker and Warburg. 978-0-436-52010-5.

ISBN

Carr, Larry (1970). Four Fabulous Faces:The Evolution and Metamorphosis of Swanson, Garbo, Crawford and Dietrich. Doubleday and Company. 978-0-87000-108-6.

ISBN

(2019). Sternberg and Dietrich: The Phenomenology of Spectacle. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-091524-7.

Phillips, James

Riva, David J. (2006). A Woman at War: Marlene Dietrich Remembered. Wayne State University Press. 978-0-8143-3249-8.

ISBN

Walker, Alexander (1984). . Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-015319-9.

Dietrich

wrote the theatre play "Marlene in Hollywood",^[1] which he staged in 2023 with the Theater Lindenhof in Burladingen-Melchingen, Swabian Alb. The premiere took place there in May 2023.^[2] The play was backed by the Deutsche Kinemathek, it focuses on Marlene Dietrich's time in Hollywood.^[3]

Marlene Dietrich