Home   >   Movie Stars   >   D   >   Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Marie Magdelene "Marlene" Dietrich von Losch (December 27, 1901-May 6, 1992) was a German actress and singer.

Born in Berlin, Dietrich played the violin before joining an acting school 1921, making her film debut the following year. After playing in German movies only at first, she got her first role in a Hollywood movie in 1930, Morocco (for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress), after her role in the German movie The Blue Angel.

Often playing a "femme fatale", Dietrich played in several successful movies until the 1950s, including Shanghai Express, Destry Rides Again, Foreign Affair, and Witness for the Prosecution.

Dietrich sang in several of her films (most famously in Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, in which she sings "Falling In Love Again"), having made records in Germany in the 1920s. Following a slow-down in her film career, she made a number of records first for Decca and later for Columbia.

Dietrich was known to have a strong set of political convictions and a mind to speak them. She was a staunch anti-Nazi, seriously disliked Germany's anti-semitic policies of the time. Her singing helped here too, as she recorded a number of anti-Nazi records in German.

She's also famous for having recorded Lili Marleen during World War II, a curious example of song transcending the hatreds of war.

Dietrich was a model for which later stars would follow. Her public image and some of her movies included strong sexual undertones including bisexuality.

Despite all of this, she was reportedly offered a kings ransom to return to Germany, possibly due to her immense popularity. Which she declined. Other sources report that she quipped that she would return only when one of her Jewish friends (possibly Max Reinhardt) could accompany her.

Dietrich died in 1992 in Paris, of kidney failure. Her body was returned to Berlin, Germany where she was interred in the Freidenau Cemetery.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Marlene Dietrich Facts

Birth NameMarie Magdelene Dietrich
OccupationActress, Musician
BirthdayDecember 27, 1901
SignCapricorn
BirthplaceSchöneberg, Germany
Date of deathMay 6, 1992 (Paris, France, age 90)
Height5' 6" (1m68)  How tall is Marlene Dietrich compared to you?

Selected Filmography

The Spoilers
Touch of Evil
Film Noir 10-Movie Spotlight Collection
Witness for the Prosecution
Paris When It Sizzles
No Highway in the Sky
Marlene
Judgment at Nuremberg
Ann Margret
Continue » Find more details on the Marlene Dietrich Movies page