Marie Magdalene "Marlene"Dietrich[4] (/mɑːrˈleɪnəˈdiːtrɪx/,German:[maʁˈleːnəˈdiːtʁɪç]ⓘ; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992[5]) was a German-American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades.[6]
Dietrich was known for her humanitarian efforts during World War II, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and 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, theAmerican Film Institute named Dietrich the ninthgreatest female screen legend ofclassic Hollywood cinema.[7]
Dietrich's birthplace in Leberstraße 65, Berlin-Schöneberg
Marlene Dietrich was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich on 27 December 1901 at Leberstraße 65 in the neighborhood ofRote Insel inSchöneberg, now a district ofBerlin. Her mother, Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josefine (née Felsing), was from an affluent Berlin family who owned a jewelry andclock-making firm. Her father, Louis Erich Otto Dietrich, was a police lieutenant. Dietrich had one sibling, Elisabeth (5 February 1900 – 8 May 1973).[8] Dietrich's father was born on 26 August 1867 and died in August 1908.[9][10] His best friend, Eduard von Losch, anaristocratic first lieutenant in theGrenadiers, courted Wilhelmina and married her in 1914, but he died in July 1916 from injuries sustained during the First World War.[4] Von Losch never officially adopted the Dietrich sisters, so Dietrich's surname was never von Losch, as has sometimes been said.[11]
Dietrich's family nicknamed her "Lena", "Lene", or "Leni" (IPA:[leːnɛ]).[12] Aged about 11, she combined her first two names to form the name "Marlene." Dietrich attended the Auguste-Viktoria Girls' School from 1907 to 1917[13] and graduated from the Victoria-Luise-Schule (today Goethe-Gymnasium) inBerlin-Wilmersdorf in 1918.[14] She studied theviolin[15] and became interested in theater and poetry as a teenager. A wrist injury[16] curtailed her dreams of becoming a concert violinist, but by 1922 she had her first job playing violin in apit orchestra for silent films at a Berlin cinema. She was fired after four weeks.[17]
The earliest professional stage appearances by Dietrich were as achorus girl on tour with Guido Thielscher's Girl-Kabarettvaudeville-style entertainments and inRudolf Nelson revues in Berlin.[18] In 1922, Dietrich auditioned unsuccessfully for theatrical director and impresarioMax Reinhardt's drama academy;[19] however, she soon found herself working in his theatres as a chorus girl and playing small roles in dramas.
Dietrich's film debut was a small part in the filmThe Little Napoleon (1923).[20] She met her future husband Rudolf Sieber on the set ofTragedy of Love in 1923. Dietrich and Sieber were married in a civil ceremony in Berlin on 17 May 1923.[21] Her only child, daughterMaria Elisabeth Sieber, was born on 13 December 1924.[22]
In 1930, on the strength ofThe Blue Angel's international success, and with encouragement and promotion from Josef von Sternberg, who was established in Hollywood, Dietrich moved to the United States under contract toParamount Pictures, the U.S. film distributor ofThe Blue Angel. The studio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Swedish starGreta Garbo. Sternberg welcomed her with gifts, including a greenRolls-Royce Phantom II. The car later appeared in their first U.S. filmMorocco.[31]
Dietrich starred in six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount between 1930 and 1935. Von Sternberg worked effectively with Dietrich to create the image of a glamorous and mysteriousfemme fatale. He encouraged her to lose weight and coached her intensively as an actress. She willingly followed his, sometimes imperious, direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted.[32]
InMorocco (1930) withGary Cooper, Dietrich was again cast as a cabaret singer. The film is best remembered for the sequence in which she performs a song dressed in a man's white tie and kisses another woman, both provocative for the era. The film earned Dietrich her onlyAcademy Award nomination.Morocco was followed byDishonored (1931) withVictor McLaglen, a major success with Dietrich cast as aMata Hari–like spy.
Dietrich and von Sternberg again collaborated on the romanceBlonde Venus (1932) withCary Grant. Dietrich worked without von Sternberg for the first time in three years in the romantic dramaSong of Songs (1933), playing a naïve German peasant, under the direction ofRouben Mamoulian. Dietrich and Sternberg's last two films,The Scarlet Empress (1934) withJohn Davis Lodge andThe Devil Is a Woman (1935)—the most stylized of their collaborations—were their lowest-grossing films. Dietrich later remarked that she was at her most beautiful inThe Devil Is a Woman.
Von Sternberg is known for his exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect, so much so, that even 50 years later, one ofShanghai Express's production stills became the inspiration of the cover of rock bandQueen's albumQueen II which was integrated into the music video of their single "Bohemian Rhapsody".
His signature use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted window blinds, combined with the scrupulous attention toset design and costumes makes the films they made together among cinema's most visually stylish.[34]
Critics still vigorously debate how much of the credit belonged to von Sternberg and how much to Dietrich, but most would agree that neither consistently reached such heights again after Paramount fired von Sternberg and the two ceased working together.[35]
The collaboration of one actress and director creating seven films is still unmatched in motion pictures, with the possible exception ofKatharine Hepburn andGeorge Cukor, who made ten films together over a much longer period but which were not created for Hepburn the way the last six von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations were.[36][37]
Dietrich's first film after the end of her partnership with von Sternberg wasFrank Borzage'sDesire (1936) with Gary Cooper, a commercial success that gave Dietrich an opportunity to try her hand atromantic comedy. Her next project,I Loved a Soldier (1936), ended in shambles when the film was scrapped several weeks into production due to script problems, scheduling confusion and the studio's decision to fire the producer Ernst Lubitsch.[38]
Extravagant offers lured Dietrich away from Paramount to make her first color filmThe Garden of Allah (1936) for independent producerDavid O. Selznick, for which she received $200,000, and to Britain for Alexander Korda's production,Knight Without Armour (1937), at a salary of $450,000, which made her one of the best paid film stars of the time. While both films performed decently at the box office, her vehicles were costly to produce and her public popularity had declined. By this time, Dietrich placed 126th in box office rankings, and American film exhibitors proclaimed her "box office poison" in May 1938, a distinction she shared withGreta Garbo,Joan Crawford,Mae West,Katharine Hepburn,Norma Shearer,Dolores del Río, andFred Astaire among others.[39]
While in London, Dietrich later said in interviews, she was approached byNazi Party officials and offered lucrative contracts, should she agree to return to be a foremost film star inNazi Germany. She refused their offers and applied for U.S. citizenship in 1937.[40] She returned to Paramount to makeAngel (1937), another romantic comedy directed byErnst Lubitsch; the film was poorly received, leading Paramount to buy out the remainder of Dietrich's contract.
Dietrich, with encouragement fromJosef von Sternberg, accepted producerJoe Pasternak's offer to play against type in her first film in two years: that of the cowboy saloon girl, Frenchie, in the western-comedyDestry Rides Again (1939), withJames Stewart. This was a significantly less well paid role than she had been accustomed to.
Marlene Dietrich and U.S. Army Technician Fourth Grade Earl E. McFarland in Belgium (24 November 1944)
Dietrich and U.S. soldiers somewhere in France during her second USO tour (1944)
Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them. In the late 1930s, Dietrich created a fund withBilly Wilder and several other exiles to help Jews and dissidents escape from Germany. In 1937, her entire salary forKnight Without Armor ($450,000) was put intoescrow to help the refugees. In 1939, she became an American citizen and renounced her German citizenship.[5]In December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first public figures to help sellwar bonds. She toured the U.S. from January 1942 to September 1943 (appearing before 250,000 troops on the Pacific Coast leg of her tour alone) and was reported to have sold more war bonds than any other star.[41][42]
During two extended tours for theUSO in 1944 and 1945,[41] she performed forAllied troops in Algeria, Italy, the UK, France andHeerlen in the Netherlands,[43] then entered Germany with GeneralsJames M. Gavin andGeorge S. Patton. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometers of German lines, she replied, "aus Anstand"—"out of decency".[44] Wilder later remarked that she was at the front lines more thanDwight Eisenhower. Her revue, withDanny Thomas as her opening act for the first tour, included songs from her films, performances on hermusical saw (a skill taught to her byIgo Sym that she had originally acquired for stage appearances in Berlin in the 1920s) and a "mindreading" act that her friendOrson Welles had taught her for hisMercury Wonder Show. Dietrich would inform the audience that she could read minds and ask them to concentrate on whatever came into their minds. Then she would walk over to a soldier and earnestly tell him, "Oh, think of something else. I can't possibly talk aboutthat!" American church papers reportedly published stories complaining about this part of Dietrich's act.[37][41]
In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Musak project, musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers.[45] Dietrich, the only performer who was made aware that her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded a number of songs in German for the project, including "Lili Marleen", a favorite of soldiers on both sides of the conflict.[46] Major GeneralWilliam J. Donovan, head of the OSS, wrote to Dietrich, "I am personally deeply grateful for your generosity in making these recordings for us."[47]
At the war's end in Europe, Dietrich reunited with her sister Elisabeth and her sister's husband and son. They had resided in the German village ofBelsen throughout the war years, running a cinema frequented by Nazi officers and officials who oversaw theBergen-Belsen concentration camp. Dietrich's mother remained in Berlin during the war; her husband moved to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley of California. Dietrich vouched for her sister and her sister's husband, sheltering them from possible prosecution as Nazi collaborators.[48] However, Dietrich later omitted the existence of her sister and her sister's son from all accounts of her life, completely disowning them and claiming to be an only child.[49]
Dietrich received theMedal of Freedom in November 1947, for her "extraordinary record entertaining troops overseas during the war".[50] She said this was her proudest accomplishment.[45] She was also awarded theLégion d'honneur by the French government for her wartime work.[51]
Dietrich often performed parts of her show intop hat and tails. Caricature by Hans Georg Pfannmüller showing Dietrich during a cabaret performance in 1954.
From the early 1950s until the mid-1970s, Dietrich worked almost exclusively as a cabaret artist, performing live in large theatres in major cities worldwide.
In 1953, Dietrich was offered $30,000 per week[55] to appear live at theSahara Hotel[56] on the Las Vegas Strip. The show was short, consisting only of a few songs associated with her.[56] Her daringly sheer "nude dress"—a heavily beaded evening gown of silk soufflé, which gave the illusion of transparency—designed byJean Louis, attracted a lot of publicity.[56] This engagement was so successful that she was signed to appear at theCafé de Paris in London the following year; her Las Vegas contracts were also renewed.[57]
Dietrich employedBurt Bacharach as her musical arranger starting in the mid-1950s; together, they refined her nightclub act into a more ambitious theatricalone-woman show with an expanded repertoire.[58] Her repertoire included songs from her films as well as popular songs of the day. Bacharach's arrangements helped to disguise Dietrich's limited vocal range—she was acontralto[59]—and allowed her to perform her songs to maximum dramatic effect;[58] together, they recorded four albums and several singles between 1957 and 1964.[60] In a TV interview in 1971, she credited Bacharach with giving her the "inspiration" to perform during those years.[61]
Bacharach then felt he needed to devote his time fully to songwriting. But she had also come to rely on him in order to perform, and wrote about his leaving in her memoir:
From that fateful day on, I have worked like a robot, trying to recapture the wonderful woman he helped make out of me. I even succeeded in this effort for years, because I always thought of him, always longed for him, always looked for him in the wings, and always fought against self-pity ... He had become so indispensable to me that, without him, I no longer took much joy in singing. When he left me, I felt like giving everything up. I had lost my director, my support, my teacher, my maestro.[62]
She often performed the first part of her show in one of her body-hugging dresses and aswansdown coat, and change to top hat and tails for the second half of the performance.[63] This allowed her to sing songs usually associated with male singers, like "One for My Baby" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face".[58]
"She ... transcends her material," according toPeter Bogdanovich. "Whether it's a flighty old tune like 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby' ... a schmaltzy German love song, 'Das Lied ist Aus' or a French one 'La Vie en Rose', she lends each an air of the aristocrat, yet she never patronises ... A folk song, 'Go 'Way From My Window' has never been sung with such passion, and in her hands 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?' is not just another anti-war lament but a tragic accusation against us all."[64]
Francis Wyndham offered a more critical appraisal of the phenomenon of Dietrich in concert. He wrote in 1964: "What she does is neither difficult nor diverting, but the fact that she does it at all fills the onlookers with wonder ... It takes two to make a conjuring trick: the illusionist's sleight of hand and the stooge's desire to be deceived. To these necessary elements (her own technical competence and her audience's sentimentality) Marlene Dietrich adds a third—the mysterious force of her belief in her own magic. Those who find themselves unable to share this belief tend to blame themselves rather than her."[65]
Her use of body-sculpting undergarments, nonsurgical temporaryfacelifts (tape),[66] expert makeup and wigs,[67] combined with careful stage lighting,[57] helped to preserve Dietrich's glamorous image as she grew older. Dietrich had owned a penthouse inNew York City at 993Park Avenue since 1959.[68]
Dietrich in Jerusalem during a tour in Israel, 1960Marlene Dietrich discusses her film and cabaret career in an interview recorded in Paris, 1959.
Dietrich's return toWest Germany in 1960 for a concert tour received a mixed reception—despite a consistently negative press, vociferous protest by Germans who felt she had betrayed her homeland, and two bomb threats, her performance attracted huge crowds. During her performances at Berlin'sTitania Palast theatre, protesters chanted, "Marlene Go Home!"[69] On the other hand, Dietrich was warmly welcomed by other Germans, including Berlin MayorWilly Brandt, who was, like Dietrich, an opponent of the Nazis who had lived in exile during their rule.[69] The tour was an artistic triumph, but a financial failure.[69] She was left emotionally drained by the hostility she encountered, and she left convinced never to visit again.East Germany, however, received her well.[70] She also undertook a tour of Israel around the same time, which was well-received; she sang some songs in German during her concerts, including, from 1962, a German version ofPete Seeger's anti-war anthem "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", thus breaking the unofficial taboo against the use of German inIsrael.[67] She would become the first woman and German to receive the Israeli Medallion of Valor in 1965, "in recognition for her courageous adherence to principle and consistent record of friendship for the Jewish people".Dietrich in London, a concert album, was recorded during the run of her 1964 engagement at theQueen's Theatre.[71]
She performed onBroadway twice (in 1967 and 1968) and received aSpecial Tony Award in 1968. In November 1972,I Wish You Love, a version of Dietrich's Broadway show titledAn Evening with Marlene Dietrich, was filmed in London.[72] She was paid $250,000 for her cooperation but was unhappy with the result. The show was broadcast in the UK on the BBC and in the U.S. on CBS in January 1973.[73]
Dietrich continued with a busy performance schedule until September 1975.[74] WhenClive Hirschhorn asked her why she continued to perform, she said, "Do you think this is glamorous? That this is a great life, and that I do it for my health? Well, it isn't. It's hard work. And who would work if they didn't have to?"[75]
In her 60s and 70s, Dietrich's health declined: she survivedcervical cancer in 1965[76] and suffered from poor circulation in her legs.[67] Dietrich became increasingly dependent on painkillers and alcohol.[67] A stage fall at theShady Grove Music Fair in Maryland in 1973 injured her left thigh, necessitating skin grafts to allow the wound to heal.[77] She fractured her right leg in August 1974.[78]
Dietrich's show business career largely ended on 29 September 1975, when she fell on the stage and broke a thigh bone during a performance inSydney, Australia.[79] The following year, her husband, Rudolf Sieber, died of cancer on 24 June 1976.[80] Dietrich's final on-camera film appearance was a brief appearance inJust a Gigolo (1978), starringDavid Bowie and directed byDavid Hemmings, in which she sang the title song.
Dietrich's gravestone in Berlin. The inscription reads "Hier steh ich an den Marken meiner Tage" (literally: "Here I am standing at the border stones of my days"), a line from thesonnet"Abschied vom Leben" ("Farewell to Life") byTheodor Körner.
Dietrich withdrew to her apartment at 12Avenue Montaigne inParis. She spent the final 13 years of her life mostly bedridden, allowing only a select few—including family and employees—to enter the apartment. During this time, she was a prolific letter-writer and phone-caller. Her autobiographyNehmt nur mein Leben (Take Just My Life), was published in 1979.[81]
In 1982, Dietrich agreed to participate in a documentary film about her life,Marlene (1984), but refused to be filmed. The film's director is her former co-star fromJudgment at Nuremberg (1961),Maximilian Schell, and even with that familiarity, he was still only allowed to record her voice. Schell used his interviews with her as the basis for the film, set to a collage of film clips from her career. The film won several European film prizes and received anAcademy Award nomination for Best Documentary in 1984.Newsweek named it "a unique film, perhaps the most fascinating and affecting documentary ever made about a great movie star".[82]
In 1988, Dietrich recorded spoken introductions to songs for a nostalgia album byUdo Lindenberg.[83]
In an interview with the German magazineDer Spiegel in November 2005, Dietrich's daughter and grandson said Dietrich was politically active during these years.[84] She kept in contact with world leaders by telephone, includingRonald Reagan,Mikhail Gorbachev, andMargaret Thatcher, running up a monthly bill of over US$3,000. In 1990, her appeal to save theBabelsberg Studios from closure was broadcast onBBC Radio. She had spoken on television via telephone on the occasion of the fall of theBerlin Wall the previous year. Also in spring 1990, she spoke on French forces radio station addressing her fellow Berliners in Germany about her then most recent conversation with French presidentMitterrand regarding his promise to her that Berlin would be the capital city of a united Germany later on—at that point in time, a quite appealing but non-official French presidential statement.
Dietrich andRobert W. Service on the set ofThe Spoilers (1942) in which they shared a brief scene (with Service unbilled as a Yukon poet patterned after himself)
On 6 May 1992, Dietrich died ofkidney failure at her flat in Paris at age 90. Her funeral was arequiem mass conducted at theRoman Catholic church ofLa Madeleine in Paris on 14 May 1992.[85] Dietrich's funeral service was attended by approximately 1,500 mourners in the church itself—including ambassadors from Germany, Russia, the US, the UK, and other countries—with thousands more outside. Her closed coffin, draped in the French flag, rested beneath the altar and was adorned with a simple bouquet of white wildflowers and roses from the French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand. Three medals, including France's Légion d'honneur and the U.S. Medal of Freedom were displayed at the foot of the coffin, military style, for a ceremony symbolizing the sense of duty Dietrich embodied in her career as an actress, and in her personal fight against Nazism. The officiating priest remarked: "Everyone knew her life as an artist of film and song, and everyone knew her tough stands ... She lived like a soldier and would like to be buried like a soldier".[86][87] By coincidence, her picture was used in theCannes Film Festival poster that year which was pasted up all over Paris.[88]
In her will Dietrich expressed the wish to be buried in her birthplace Berlin, near her family. Her body was flown there to fulfill her wish on 16 May 1992.[86] Her coffin was draped in an American flag befitting her status as an American. As her coffin traveled through Berlin bystanders threw flowers onto it, a fitting tribute because Dietrich loved flowers, even saving the flowers thrown to her at the end of her performances for use in subsequent shows. Dietrich was interred at theStädtischer Friedhof III, Schöneberg, close by the grave of her mother Josefine von Losch, and near the house where she was born.[86]
On 14 September 1993, the main portion of Dietrich's estate (on which the U.S. institutions showed no interest), were sold to the city of Berlin, which then housed her estate possessions inStiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, where it became the core of the exhibition at theFilmmuseum Berlin. The items, which were known as "The Marlene Dietrich Collection," were sold to the city for US$5 million, by Dietrich's heirs.[89] At the time they were sold, it was initially reported that The Marlene Dietrich Collection included 100,000 of Dietrich's possessions.[89] However, it was later revealed that the collection also includes: over 3,000 textile items from the 1920s to the 1990s, including film and stage costumes as well as over a thousand items from Dietrich's personal wardrobe; 15,000 photographs, bySir Cecil Beaton,Horst P. Horst,George Hurrell,Lord Snowdon andEdward Steichen; 300,000 pages of documents, including correspondence with Burt Bacharach,Yul Brynner,Maurice Chevalier,Noël Coward,Jean Gabin,Ernest Hemingway,Karl Lagerfeld,Nancy andRonald Reagan,Erich Maria Remarque, Josef von Sternberg, Orson Welles and Billy Wilder; as well as other items like film posters and sound recordings.[90]
The contents of Dietrich's Manhattan apartment, along with other personal effects such as jewelry and items of clothing, were sold by public auction by Sotheby's in Los Angeles in November 1997. Her former apartment located at 993 Park Avenue was sold for $615,000 in 1998.[91]
Dietrich's professional image was carefully crafted and maintained while her personal life was mostly hidden from the public. She was fluent in German, English, Italian and French.
Dietrich, who wasbisexual, enjoyed the thrivinggay bars anddrag balls of 1920s Berlin.[92][93] Bars included theMali und Igel, run byElsa Conrad.[94] She also defied conventional gender roles with her boxing at Turkish trainer and prizefighter Sabri Mahir's boxing studio in Berlin, which opened to women in the late 1920s.
In May 1923 Dietrich married assistant director Rudolf Sieber, who later became an assistant director at Paramount Pictures in France, responsible for foreign language dubbing. Their only child,Maria Riva, was born in Berlin on 13 December 1924. Riva later became an actress, primarily working in television. When Maria gave birth to a son (John, later a famous production designer) in 1948, Dietrich was dubbed "the world's most glamorous grandmother". In the 1960s, Riva served as the organizer for Dietrich's one-woman shows.[95] After Dietrich's death, Riva published a candid biography of her mother, titledMarlene Dietrich (1992). In it Dietrich is shown as a cold, manipulative narcissist who treated Riva more like an assistant or extension of herself than a daughter.[96] When discussing her biography of her mother in 1992, Riva stated "I consider myself a biographer, not the daughter," and also labeled Dietrich as a "ephemeral creature that is beyond normalcy."[97] Riva made similar claims in an interview which was published in the March 8, 1993 issue ofPeople, where she described Dietrich as also someone who "had this ability to mentally erase anything she didn’t like to hear."[95][98] In September 1993, Riva, who still inherited a huge portion of mother's estate despite their strained relationship, would manage to successfully lead an effort to sell the bulk of Dietrich's estate to the city of Berlin.[89] Riva died on October 29, 2025 at the age of 100.[98][97]
Dietrich and Rudolf Sieber on their wedding day, 17 May 1923
Despite remaining married to Sieber until his death in June 1976,[99] Dietrich had numerous affairs, some short-lived, some lasting decades, often overlapping and almost all known to her husband, to whom she was in the habit of passing the intimate letters from her lovers, sometimes with biting comments.[100] When Dietrich arrived in Hollywood and filmedMorocco (1930), she had an affair withGary Cooper, even though Cooper was himself having an affair with Mexican actressLupe Vélez.[101] Vélez once said, "If I had the opportunity to do so, I would tear out Marlene Dietrich's eyes."[102] Another of her affairs was with actorJohn Gilbert, known for his professional and personal connection toGreta Garbo. Gilbert's untimely death was one of the most painful events of her life.[103] Dietrich also had a brief affair withDouglas Fairbanks Jr., even though he was married toJoan Crawford at the time.[104] During the production ofDestry Rides Again, Dietrich started a love affair with co-starJames Stewart, which ended after filming stopped. According to writer/directorPeter Bogdanovich, Marlene Dietrich told him during an aircraft flight that she became pregnant as a result of the affair, but had a surreptitious abortion without telling Stewart.[105] In 1938, Dietrich met and began a relationship with writerErich Maria Remarque, and in 1941, the French actorJean Gabin. He was probably the love of her life, but the relationship ended in 1948, for she desired that they live in New York and Gabin did not want to leave France.[106] The same year, Dietrich also metKennedy family patriarchJoe Kennedy, who she would have a long affair with as well.[107] She would also have a same-sex affair withJoe Carstairs.[107]
In Paris, Dietrich had an affair with Suzanne Baulé, known asFrede, a coach and cabaret hostess whom she met in 1936 at the Monocle, a women's nightclub on Boulevard Edgar-Quinet in Paris. The two women remained friends until the 1970s, as can be seen in the correspondence kept in the Marlene Dietrich archives in Berlin. In the early 1930s, Dietrich also had an affair with Cuban-American writerMercedes de Acosta, who claimed to also be Greta Garbo's lover.Sewing circle was a phrase used by Dietrich[108] to describe the underground,closeted lesbian and bisexual film actresses and their relationships in Hollywood. In the supposed "Marlene's Sewing Circle"[109] several other names of other close friends are mentioned, such asAnn Warner (the wife ofJack L. Warner, one of the owners of the Warner studios),Lili Damita (an old friend of Marlene's from Berlin and the wife ofErrol Flynn),Claudette Colbert,[110] andDolores del Río (whom Dietrich considered the most beautiful woman in Hollywood).[111][112] The French singerÉdith Piaf was also one of Dietrich's closest friends during her stay in Paris in the 1950s, with Dietrich serving as Piaf'smatron of honor at her wedding toJacques Pills in 1952; there were rumors of something more than just friendship between them.[113][114]
Dietrich was raised in the GermanLutheran tradition of Christianity, but she abandoned it as a result of her experiences as a teenager during World War I, after hearing preachers from both sides invoking God as their support. "I lost my faith during the war and can't believe they are all up there, flying around or sitting at tables, all those I've lost."[119] QuotingGoethe in her autobiography, she wrote, "If God created this world, he should review his plan."[120] Despite heratheism, Dietrich would have her funeral in a Paris Catholic church, with the funeral service even including Catholicrequiem mass.[85]
Dietrich was an icon to fashion designers and screen stars.Edith Head remarked that Dietrich knew more about fashion than any other actress. Marlene Dietrich favoured Dior.[citation needed] In an interview withThe Observer in 1960, she said, "I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men. If I dressed for myself I wouldn't bother at all. Clothes bore me. I'd wearjeans. I adore jeans. I get them in a public store—men's, of course; I can't wear women's trousers. But I dress for the profession."[121] In 2017,Swarovski commissioned a $60,000Art Deco-styled dress in the style of her "nude dress", from Berlin-based fashion tech company ElektroCouture to honor Dietrich 25 years after her death. It contains 2,000 crystals in addition to 150 LED lights.[122] ElektroCouture owner Lisa Lang said that the dress was inspired byelectrical diagrams and correspondence that took place between the actress and fashion designer Jean Louis in 1958: "She wanted a dress that glows, she wanted to be able to control it herself from the stage and she knew she could have died of an electric stroke had it ever been realized." The dress created by Lang's company was featured in French-German broadcasterArte's documentaryDas letzte Kleid der Marlene Dietrich ('The Last Dress of Marlene Dietrich').[123]
Her public image included openly defying sexual norms, and she was known for her androgynous film roles and her bisexuality.[124]
A significant volume of academic literature, especially since 1975, analyzes Dietrich's image, as created by the film industry, within various theoretical frameworks, including that of psychoanalysis. Emphasis is placed, among other things, on the "fetishistic" manipulation of the female image.[125]
Commemorative plaque at the house where she was born in Berlin
In 1992, a plaque was unveiled atLeberstraße 65 inBerlin-Schöneberg, the site of Dietrich's birth. A postage stamp bearing her portrait was issued in Germany on 14 August 1997.
For some Germans, Dietrich remained a controversial figure for having sided with theAllies during World War II. In 1996, after some debate, it was decided not to name a street after her in Berlin-Schöneberg, her birthplace.[127] However, on 8 November 1997, the centralMarlene-Dietrich-Platz was unveiled in Berlin to honour her. The commemoration reads:Berliner Weltstar des Films und des Chansons. Einsatz für Freiheit und Demokratie, für Berlin und Deutschland ("Berlin world star of film and song. Dedication to freedom and democracy, to Berlin and Germany").
Dietrich was made an honorary citizen of Berlin on 16 May 2002.Translated from German, her memorial plaque reads
Berlin Memorial Plaque
"Where have all the flowers gone" Marlene Dietrich 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992 Actress and Singer She was one of the few German actresses who attained international significance. Despite tempting offers by the Nazi regime, she emigrated to the USA and became an American citizen. In 2002, the city of Berlin posthumously made her an honorary citizen.
The U.S. government awarded Dietrich theMedal of Freedom for her war work. Dietrich has been quoted as saying this was the honor of which she was proudest in her life. They also awarded her the Operation Entertainment Medal. The French government made her aChevalier (later upgraded toCommandeur) of theLégion d'honneur and aCommandeur of theOrdre des Arts et des Lettres. Her other awards include the Medallion of Honor of the State of Israel, the Fashion Foundation of America award and aChevalier de l'Ordre de Leopold (Belgium).[128]
On 27 December 2017, she was given aGoogle Doodle on the 116th anniversary of her birth.[131] The doodle was designed by American drag artistSasha Velour, who cites Dietrich as a big inspiration due to her "gender-bending" fashion and political views.[132] Sasha portrayed Marlene during her time at competitive reality seriesRuPaul's Drag Race.
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)
The Big Show starring Tallulah Bankhead (2 October 1951)
Marlene Dietrich in conversation with J.W. Lambert and Carl Wildman recorded after her season at theQueen's Theatre, London, BBC radio, 12 August 1965 (a shorter version had been broadcast on 2 April).
The Child, with Godfrey Kenton, radio play by Shirley Jenkins, produced byRichard Imison for the BBC on 18 August 1965
Dietrich's appeal to save theBabelsberg Studio was broadcast on BBC radio
Dietrich made several appearances onArmed Forces Radio Services shows likeThe Army Hour andCommand Performance during the war years. In 1952, she had her own series on American ABC entitled,Cafe Istanbul. During 1953–54, she starred in 38 episodes ofTime for Love on CBS (which debuted 15 January 1953).[136] She recorded 94 short inserts, "Dietrich Talks on Love and Life", for NBC'sMonitor in 1958.Dietrich gave many radio interviews worldwide on her concert tours. In 1960, her show at theTuschinski in Amsterdam was broadcast live on Dutch radio. Her 1962 appearance at theOlympia in Paris was also broadcast.
Desert Island Discs, Dietrich asked to choose eight recordings, broadcast Monday 4 January 1965
A stage musical about her life,Marlene, debuted on London'sWest End in 1997. This production transferred toBroadway in 1999. In both productions, Dietrich was portrayed bySian Phillips, who was nominated for a Tony Award and an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Dietrich.[148]
^abBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva (Riva 1993); however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name (Chandler 2011, p. 12).
^See e.g.,Thomson (1975), p. 587: "He was not an easy man to be directed by. Many actors—notably [Emil] Jannings and William Powell—reacted violently to him. Dietrich adored him, and trusted him. ... "
^See, for example,Thomson (1975).The entry for Dietrich: "With him [von Sternberg] Dietrich made seven masterpieces [i.e.,Blue Angel in Germany and the six in Hollywood], films that are still breathtakingly modern, which have no superior for their sense of artificiality suffused with emotion and which visually combine decadence and austerity, tenderness and cruelty, gaiety and despair."
^See, for example, the entries for Dietrich and Sternberg inThomson (1975).
^"Marlene Dietrich : Biography".Who's Who – The People Lexicon (in German). www.whoswho.de. Retrieved5 January 2013.Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur andOfficier de la Légion d'Honneur
^ab"I have given up belief in a God."Allen Smith, Warren (2002).Celebrities in Hell: A Guide to Hollywood's Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Free Thinkers, and More. Barricade Books Inc. p. 130.ISBN978-1-56980-214-4.
^Carly Maga (17 September 2019)."Edith Piaf, 'the kind of women everybody's trying to be right now'".Toronto Star.Archived from the original on 18 September 2019. Retrieved12 December 2019.The latter was notably present at Piaf's 1952 wedding to singer Jacques Pills, but the women's relationship began in the 1940s as Piaf was first trying to break into American entertainment and Dietrich took the sparrow under her wing, so to speak.
^Rentschler, Eric (2007)."An Icon between the Fronts". In Schindler, Stephan K; Koepnick, Lutz Peter (eds.).The Cosmopolitan Screen: German Cinema and the Global Imaginary, 1945 to the present. University of Michigan Press. p. 207.ISBN978-0-472-06966-8.
Carr, Larry (1970).Four Fabulous Faces:The Evolution and Metamorphosis of Swanson, Garbo, Crawford and Dietrich. Doubleday and Company.ISBN978-0-87000-108-6.
Harvey Fierstein / Marco Paguia, David Oquendo, Renesito Avich, Gustavo Schartz, Javier Días, Román Diaz, Mauricio Herrera, Jesus Ricardo, Eddie Venegas, Hery Paz, and Leonardo Reyna / Jamie Harrison, Chris Fisher, Gary Beestone, and Edward Pierce (2025)
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