Short Biography

Marlene Dietrich was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich on 27 December 1901 in Schöneberg, a district of Berlin, Germany. Her mother was from a well-to-do Berlin family who owned a clockmaking firm and her father was a police lieutenant who had served in the Franco-Prussian War. Her father died in 1907.

Around the age of 11, she contracted her two first names to form the then-unusual name, Marlene.

Dietrich attended the Auguste Victoria School for Girls from 1906 to 1918. She studied the violin and became interested in the theatre and poetry as a teenager. Her dreams of becoming a concert violinist were cut short when she injured her wrist.

Since 1921, Dietrich soon found herself working in theatres as a chorus girl and playing small roles in dramas.

Dietrich made her film debut playing a bit part in the 1922 film, "So sind die Männer."

Dietrich and Rudolf Sieber were married on 17 May 1924. Her only child, daughter Maria Elisabeth Sieber, later billed as actress Maria Riva, was born on 13 December 1924.

In 1929, Dietrich landed her breakthrough role of Lola-Lola, a cabaret singer who causes the downfall of a hitherto respected schoolmaster, in UFA`s production, "The Blue Angel" (1930). The film was directed by Josef von Sternberg, who thereafter took credit for having "discovered" Dietrich.

Dietrich then moved to the U.S. on contract to Paramount Pictures. The studio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer to MGM`s Swedish sensation, Greta Garbo. Her first American film, "Morocco," directed by von Sternberg, earned Dietrich her only Oscar nomination.

Without von Sternberg, Dietrich—along with Mae West, Dolores del Rio, Katharine Hepburn and others—was labeled "box office poison" in 1937. In 1939, however, her stardom revived when she played the cowboy saloon girl Frenchie in the light-hearted western "Destry Rides Again" opposite James Stewart.

In December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first celebrities to raise war bonds. She entertained troops on the front lines in a USO revue.

She sang for the Allied troops on the front lines in Algeria and France, and went into Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton.

Dietrich`s recording career spanned over half a century.

During the 1960s, Dietrich recorded several albums and many singles, mostly with Burt Bacharach at the helm of the orchestra.

Her repertoire included songs from her films as well as popular songs of the day.

Dietrich`s show business career largely ended on 29 September 1975, when she broke her leg during a stage performance in Sydney, Australia. Her husband, Rudolf Sieber, died of cancer on 24 June 1976.

Growing increasingly reclusive, Dietrich withdrew to her apartment at 12 avenue Montaigne in Paris.

Dietrich died peacefully of renal failure on 6 May 1992 at the age of 90 in Paris. Her body, covered with an American flag, was then returned to Berlin, where she was interred near her mother`s grave and not far away from the house where she was born.

Miscellaneous Information

Friends and Family

Carole Lombard [Friend]

Tallulah Bankhead [Friend]

Van Johnson [Friend]

James Cagney [Friend]

George Burns [Friend]

George Jessel [Friend]

Jack Benny [Friend]

Gloria Swanson [Friend]

Claudette Colbert [Friend]

Rita Hayworth [Friend]

Dolores Del Rio [Friend]

Vera Zorina [Friend]

Mae West [Friend]

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